OK, not really.

I’ve reached a milestone, I’ve been labeled a Microsoft fanboy, a shill, been asked if I work for Microsoft and if I’m on the payroll. Somehow I was also labeled a Bush-supporting, Iraq war-loving Republican. Someone named “Will” even crowned me Shawn “Microsoft” Oster. Hey Will, anything you want me to pass along to Bill during our weekly world domination take-over meeting?

All joking aside I’ll clarify my position on Microsoft, not in defense of myself but to at least spurn more original arguments against me.

I’m not defending Microsoft, I’m not even a fanboy. I’m trying to make sure people understand where the battle lines are drawn. I have my own issues with Microsoft but I like to think I’m pretty informed in my arguments and that I’m looking at it from all sides before beginning my rants. If you don’t understand an issue how can you argue it? I’m all about the good fight but I find it more useful when you’re pointing your cannon in the right direction.

When someone says “Vista’s DRM” I’m angered not because they are saying something negative against Microsoft, I’m angered because it’s incorrect. When it comes to HD content Vista doesn’t actually contain DRM, it has support for HDCP.

When someone says Mac’s are so much better than PC’s because Mac’s “just work” I get frustrated not because I hate Apple but because I’ve personally known people whose Mac didn’t just work and in fact they spent hours dealing with support and struggling with hardware and software issues.

Labeling me a Microsoft defender because I point out the flaws in their logic is like labeling someone a terrorist just because they don’t agree that we’re handling the Iraq war well. Hell, even Bush finally admitted that we hadn’t actually won anything yet.

Oh, for the record I don’t work for Microsoft. I’m a software developer that writes in Delphi, C#, PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, MySql, Sql Server, PostScript (don’t ask), x86 Assembly (what young nerd didn’t learn assembly so they could crack games?), XHTML + CSS (yes, IE6 is pure evil), Ruby (with Rails of course), JavaScript and whatever else catches my interest. I learned to code on a Mac and became very familiar around a Linux shell while installing MythTV (though I’m using MCE now, I love using my 360 as an extender).