Time to relocate again. I am moving to Microsoft office in Hyderabad.
Mixed feelings really.
First of all I never thought that I would be taking up an offer from Microsoft. Not even in my dreams.
I still don't know whether I am making the right move or not. I am not 100% sure about joining MS, but I am 100% sure about leaving my current work place.
Again, as most of my friends know about me , I work quite a bit on Linux as a hobby. The computer at home has always been a dual boot system. I have worked on snmp and on freelords. I have been fed up of Windows, but still have it as I play a lot of games on it. Linux lags far behind microsoft when it comes to gaming.
So, how come a linux guy is going to join microsoft ? A friend asked me that, and I had to look back and reflect on it - how is it happening ? That has taken me to the roots of why I started using Linux. There were 2 main considerations : 1) It was free, 2) It was opensource.
1. The freeness
Living in India, a developing country, a middle class family does not have the money to buy much software. Rs3000/- for an operating system is quite expensive. Again, add to it the cost of 'essentials' like Office , Outlook and VC++ development suite - and you have to shell out much more than what you can afford. Costs of software can easily be almost double of the hardware costs. Actually, in the past few years the cost of hardware has been falling drastically here in India, and with a Windows only system, the cost of software is a deciding factor.
That's where the Tux comes in. Its free. You don't have to worry about prosecution from authorities from using pirated software.
2. The openness
As a geek, I like knowing how things work. I like taking apart stuff and seeing the internals. Linux and Opensource software appeals to that geek in me. When I had started coding my code was not really that great, but I used to think it was. Then I started looking at the way people code for the linux kernel , and I was left breathless. It was beautiful. And I have picked up techniques from there, which I probably would not have had i never looked at it.
So, how does this translate to MS.
Well, I think it would be great if I can see the source code of what most people use around the world. It would be great if I could fix a few things - cause that's the greatest grouse against Windows that I have.
However, I don't know how it would be in MS. Will I have access to the source code base ? Even if I do, can I put in fixes into the modules that I am not working on ? I guess I can only find out after I join.
There is a lot of discontent about MS on the net , the most prominent is the mini-microsoft blog. But, I guess its because with a company the size of MS will have discontent people - its inevitable. But, the company is still the biggest that is out there. For a person in the US, used to living in luxury, maybe their standards from the company are too high, especially after the google blitz. But for a person in India, MS offers quite a lot more than other indian companies.
I know a couple of friends in MS, and they ok with it. The interviewers were also above the level of the other interviews that I had. While most interviews for companies are more on the line of what I know ( rather they were more interested in knowing what I did not know), the MS interview was about getting to know what I could do. At some points it even left me a bit surprised. Working with the people who have set their standards high atomatically causes a guy to raise his standard.
The issues in MS may be very real, but I am sure that the learnings from there would be much more than any other indian company.
Some links about life in MS :
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