I used to be a Microsoft Regional Director four years ago, and then saw the future. These days I am an Open Source, OSX, Linux kind of person. I still talk at Microsoft developer conferences, but here is the kicker, I only show up with an OSX box.
Usually at the conferences I will open the OSX box, start the talk and say how .NET is cross-platform, etc. Even if the talk is not about Mono. Then I will cynically say in a Steve Job's voice, "Hey I am cool!". Usually that gets a few laughs. AND I notice that during the talks, or later on those with OSX boxes will show me their OSX boxes.
When I talk about .NET, I talk about .NET in generic terms. If there is something specific regarding Microsoft, I just ignore it. Remember the following, it is not about pleasing Microsoft, it is about pleasing the audience. Remember "The Gladiator" movie? Same concepts apply, if the audience loves you, then you "get away with murder".
My advice is that you do talk at user groups and conferences, etc, etc. And with each talk think, "The Gladiator".
Posted by Christian Gross at December 29, 2004 02:58 AMNice. I willing to meet up with you. Name a time and place, and I will be there.
Posted by Zac at December 31, 2004 11:37 PMI would love to have you guys give a Mono presentation at the Plano .NET Users Group. I wish I could help make that happen. So, I did what I could; I made a blog post:
http://thecodinghumanist.blogspot.com/2005/01/what-mono-can-do-for-net-dudes.html
If you can think of anything else that can be done, I'd love to hear your ideas.
Posted by Eric Sowell at January 6, 2005 09:18 AMhey Paco!
You and I have talked quite a few times about doing something at the Plano .NET Users Group. You know that I'm very interested in Mono, even so far as making sure that nGallery had worked with Mono.
I spoke with you in October about trying to get something together, with Novell, for a meeting in November. Unfortunately, November fell through for us due to some last minute rescheduling and shuffling of calendars, and never really having heard back from you on confirmations I had to make sure we had speakers lined up.
From there, it was unfortunate that you were unavailable in December, as I was very interested in getting something setup.
Now, January and February of this year have been booked well ahead of time, but I already had it in my head for either you and/or Jonathan to come speak in March.
I'm certainly not trying to dodge you, nor brand you with a Scarlet letter. But, logistically, planning UG's are not always as fun, or ideal, as any of us would like them to be.
As always, give me a yell and let's talk and get this thing on the calendar for March.
Thanks,
-Jason
President, PDNUG (http://www.pdnug.net)
Er, Joseph, not Jonathan. Sorry, I always do that. :)
-Jason