Whither BizSpark?

As Mini reported, Microsoft has finished shipping Microsoft Layoff 2009, to middling response. Microsoft laid off roughly 5% of their workforce in an effort to appease Wall Street and improve their stock price. The amount of layoffs is probably not deep enough to effectively change the company or make it more nimble in the marketplace; and Microsoft is still acquiring other companies and adding those employees to its rolls.

What does that have to do with a smaller scientific software company far away from Redmond? Well, we're part of Microsoft's BizSpark program, which gives startups access to Microsoft tools and expertise. And one of the folks let go by Microsoft was the head of BizSpark, Don Dodge. Don't worry about Don, he's already landed at Google. The question is, what does his departure say about Microsoft and their commitment to BizSpark?

Microsoft makes most of its money from Windows and Office by having the OS and the premier "productivity" suite on the desktops of 80-90% of the desks of the world's corporations. One of the main reasons that we work on the Windows stack is that the bio-science and chemistry scientific devices that our customers have on their lab benchtops tie into Windows machines. So if we want our tools to integrate with those devices, we have to talk to the Windows stack at some point. Lots of scientists might have sleek MacBook Pros, or geek out on Ubuntu, but the truth is that their detectors will plug into a Windows box.

This isn't to say we were not fans of Windows development. I've written about how we like writing in C# and using WPF. However, we wrote one iteration of our stealth product in Python and WxWidgets and enjoyed that too. It was only when we realised that we'd gain 10% of the market in cross-platform-ness and lose many factors of that in interoperability that we turned around and wrote the next iteration targeting .NET 3.5.

So, back to BizSpark: Microsoft has a program where they target small companies and startups to give them access to MS tools and expertise. A market that is not Microsoft's core focus. And then they turn around and fire right-size the head of the program. The point was made to me by some folks in the office that, from a business perspective, this move might make sense. Mr. Dodge probably had a big salary, and startups aren't where MS makes its money, regardless of how TechCrunch feels about the situation.

However, looking at it from the consumers of the BizSpark program (i.e. us), I think small companies and startups should be concerned. Although Microsoft is not stopping the program, and they've put out feelers to hire someone more junior to replace Mr. Dodge, it's clear by their actions that Microsoft isn't too focused on small companies and startups. For every Xobni and Stack Overflow that use the MS stack, there are tens to hundreds of examples of successful startups that have chosen to use a F/OSS toolchain. So if you have to pick between F/OSS on one side, and Microsoft's possible abandonment of BizSpark on the other, I'd hate to end up like Lando Calrissian when Vader changes the terms of the deal.

Like I said above, it doesn't affect us too greatly. We're on .NET because that's where most of our customers are, and will be for the foreseeable future. We'll be here if BizSpark morphs into something else. And in Toronto, we have some passionate advocates for developers and startups that work for Microsoft. The concern is that Redmond will cut these guys off at the knees (and by extension the developers and small companies they support).

Thoughts?