Microsoft tried to hire Eric Raymond

Old news (Sept 9) but I missed it until today. Found it on Doc's blog. A recruiter from Microsoft sent Eric S Raymond, the Godfather of the Open Source movement, an email suggesting they set up a time to chat about Eric having a career at Redmond. If you haven't already, read Eric's email response. I went looking on Scoble's blog for his reaction but can't find any mention of it. The guy Eric mentions who left Microsoft after talking to him about open source, Stephen Walli, has a blog and provides his side of the story here. He makes this acute observation:

In discussions with friends about the article, it was observed that the type of people leaving now are the sort that question everything and aren't willing to take "no" for an answer.  Essentially, these are the sort of people that made the company what it is, and exactly the sort that can't be happy in what it's become.

 

I never worked in Redmond but I can relate to his frustrations. The Australian Microsoft operation is very similar. It's hard to get time with the folks at the top who can make decisions and there are lots of layers of padding between them and the people on the street. Lots of spreadsheet jockeys covering their asses and "managing upwards". Lots of great people though and none of them "evil" (a few of them clinically insane perhaps, but not John Carpenter evil). It was a great 6 years but I'm having so much more fun now than it's not even comparable. I think it took me a year to get used to being able to just do things without having to check in with five middle managers first.

That's not to say the company isn't turning out some cool shit. XBOX360. TABLET PC. POCKET PC. MEDIA CENTER. Four cool products at one time is nothing to sneeze at.

Comments

[Rob Irwin]

Best comeback e-mail of the 21st century thus far.

[David Lemphers]

Wow, I love that Eric doesn't hold back on his claim to fame. "I am the guy who responded to Craig Mundie’s “Who are you?” with “I’m your worst nightmare”, and that I’ve
in fact been something pretty close to your company’s worst nightmare since about 1997". Jeez, what's my issue with OSS? This kind of ego! Take it easy Eric, Dungeons and Dragons left the corporate culture many years ago. I thought the whole "goodness" of OSS was many hands...etc? But when the rubber meets the road, most of the old guard want there 15 seconds! Both in the IDE and in the spotlight.

[Cameron Reilly]

oh yeah Dave, there's no ego at Microsoft. Riiiiight.
Big egos aren't confined to OSS. And that's your biggest issue with OSS? Big egos? That's ain't gunna stand up in court buddy! Or in the board room. Time to get some better arguments. :-)

[Rob Irwin]

And, Dave, don't discount that Eric is a nice guy. The e-mail is overdone because, clearly, he is amused at how the recruiter could be possibly contacting him in all seriousness.

[Cameron Reilly]

yeah good point Rob. In the original post, Eric actually goes to lengths to say he was very polite to the recruiter when on the phone with him before the email reply. I'm assuming the reply was done in good humour and for effect. And to make the point that the recruiter had NO IDEA who he was talking to. A quick google would have been enough to prevent him from wasting his (and Eric's) time.

[David Lemphers]

LOL, what a classic response Cam, you should be a reporter on ACA, or even better, PHP.org (http://blogs.msdn.com/davidlem/archive/2005/08/11/450321.aspx) ;) My biggest issue? It's ONE of the many issues I have, I wouldn't say it's the biggest. I don't remember mentioning anything about MS either, of course we have egos, but that has nothing to do with Eric's post. See, the biggest issues I have with OSS Cam are the ones associated with trying to develop using it (poor quality, poor documentation, no longevity), and contribute to it (Open Software?? What a sham! Ever heard of the "core contributor" syndrome)? As for the commercial politics, who gives a shit?

[Mosaic]

arguments are so hard make good guys........