A posting on channel9 about Microsoft in Universities got me thinking. Hard. And the reply I posted there I think is "worthy" (as much as any of the stuff I spew here is worthy) of becoming a blog entry.

Sun got it very right with Java in academia, even though .net can be argued to be a better example of OO.

I'm doing a part time degree, for fun more than anything else (and it's amusing to catch myself going way over the top in answers and have to rewrite them because talking UML terms is not a good idea), and I asked why it was Java. The official response was "We don't want to be tied into a single vendor".

Now that's a good answer in theory, but how many people install one of the alternate VMs? Then there's Sun's stranglehold on the standard itself, very single vendor.

Maybe they're talking about IDEs, but then there are 3rd party IDEs for .Net, including open source ones. I must admit however, the Java IDE, BlueJ has a very OO approach in the IDE, with no concept of files, wonderful visualisation and a simple IDE. It also has teaching materials with it, that's what it was designed for.

No, I fear it's an attitude thing. Microsoft come over as arrogant, large, un-moving, not helpful, borg cube.

Funny, MS UK were advertising for an Academic Evangelist a few months back. Shame it required a degree, or I would have applied.

A quick project to project a Blue# or something, either hand in hand with the #Develop folks (lovely excuse to help them out with real money MS) or as an intern project or as an SDC or US equivalent project, plus help a couple of universities produce a course around it, and get some consultants to help teach it for a couple of years would produce major dividends.

It's the same with the Patterns & Practices people. The code (before Enterprise Library) was a wonderful teaching tool. I've used it in mentoring projects to illustrate lots of concepts. But it's never pushed as that, it's become a "Here, download this and drop it in", because the poor P&P people are evaluated on the number of downloads. Incredibly stupid and short sighted.

But a push to education & teaching won't happen. Because it doesn't shift product. And outside the US that's the main focus for everyone (excluding the research offices). What a shame.