Puget Sound Business Journal is having a Interview with: M.P. van Sijll, the answers...

Hi there Emily,

thank you so much for having the time to questioning me at the first place,
I hope this will help us all for the future.


This is my answer:

I'm Mark Peter van Sijll from the Netherlands, born and raised and now working for more then 17 years in the IT business. I started in the IT as a UNIX System Administrator, but soon it was clear to me that about in the year of 1995 Microsoft Corp. was going to grow tremendously to be one of the greats of earth. So I had to be there with them.

Over the years, I have several dozen companies, large and small, regional, national, and even international, and I all helped them with their IT problems. I could because I was certified Microsoft for their products. I did installations, migrations, movements and left large decentralized systems merge into central systems. I even worked at Microsoft BV in the Netherlands myself, helped the first upgrade of the Windows NT4 Domain, to the Windows 2000 Active Directory - the very first LDAP directory of the Microsoft Windows NT operating system.

Over the years I searched for tools and a ways to help me in these migrations, installations and movements of small and large IT systems.That search was not difficult;
Microsoft had the answer! So called 'TechNet Subscriptions'!

TechNet Subscriptions has helped me tremendously. Crazier still, I can't even accomplish my work without it. TechNet for IT professionals = New and Legacy Knowledge, New and Legacy Technology, so for the IT business that means the power to survive, to always have work, cause you are the Senior, you are the experienced guy they so badly need. Microsoft has asked us over the years, and slightly forced us to get Certified in their products. That most of us have already done for multiple times, because we believed in this company, we believed in these products. We treat them - if they are our own.
To be honest to you: I personally think that all TechNet subscribers are Microsoft best Sales Force Team that "Do the Talks and the Walks" - all the way! We do sell!
I already have more then a decade multiple TechNet Subscriptions, even more because I enjoyed also Action Pack, which comes with a TechNet Subscription Professional+DVD Media. For me TechNet has become an addiction, I can't work without it.

You told/asked me that; Microsoft has said the main reason for shutting down TechNet is piracy.
That is a very strange thing to say, because Microsoft published the opposite...?!
Where did you get this source? It is wrong...

Even in the contrary, Microsoft said on their website and E-mail to me, that it had nothing to do with Piracy in any way, and I am the only TechNet subscriber that does believe them in this matter.
While I know what is going on...,
this whole TechNet Retirement is about MONEY!
About Sales Numbers, its about selling their newest / latest products for new fresh cash. Microsoft wants to get rid of their Legacy Systems:
Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and even Windows Seven.
Same as with SQL Server, Exchange Server, all Server product, same as with the Applications: Office 2003, is still widely used in the whole world. Microsoft wants to abandon their own products.
Not that they hate them? No, they just does not bring new cash.
Old Legacy software only brings unpaid support work, because they promised the world to do so for them within their own Warranty. And now their own Warranty is killing their sales numbers. 
Why you would say? / That's so simple: The Cloud!
Microsoft wants you, to own you and your data. To make you more dependent from their Azure Cloud system. / And this all, while not everybody, not every company wants to be in that Cloud!
Better yet: There existing huge business groups, that simply does not trust Microsoft, or any other company - to hold their sensitive and sometimes personal / financial data, even not in any bodies Cloud, not even in that from; Amazon, Google or even not Apple's Cloud systems. No way!

You asked me what will happen with my relationship with Microsoft, if they Retire the TechNet Subscription: That is a longer question with a short answer:
It will - eventually - stop being active.

Will I look for other manufactures, to continue my job?
Yes and no - that depends on what the IT business is doing to respond to this group, it depends on how things will work out for us, is a way to our own benefit, so we can make a living from it.
If Microsoft is not the answer, maybe Red hat Linux, SuSE Linux, Apple Macintosh will be?
Who's is there to say? I can't look into the future.... sadly enough.

When your subscription ends, what will you do?
I won't sit still, and just wait, so I will starve to death - that's for sure!

Have you considered using other software in the future?
Yes, like I said before in the previous questions: Red hat Linux, SuSE Linux, Apple Macintosh.

What¹s at risk for Microsoft in alienating this TechNet group?
Eventually, they will break and be tear down,
Like Novell did,
like Solaris did,
like SCO did,
and so on...
Like Microsoft will happen to do too.

"It's just business - it's nothing personal."

In the Netherlands we have a saying:
"a cat in distress, makes strange jumps", which means
in the English language: "Hard times call for harsh measures."

Microsoft is that Cat,
 but so are we...

So lets jump!

Fight, and if we loose, pick it up, and walk to the horizon, because there will always be one who's the best. And if Microsoft doesn't want to be the winner / champion, someone else will take its place.

B.t.w:
I really need to get certified on that Black Hat system...,
let's pick up some old books from 1995 about System-V, Bsd...
how bad can my rusty knowledge be? ;-)
_________________________________________________

 Met vriendelijke groet,
 With best regards,

 Mark Peter van Sijll, aka M:P
 Almere,  The Netherlands.

 E-Mail:     M.vSijll@net.??
 Mail Alias: MvSijll@inter.???
 Google:     MvSijll@Gail.???
 Skype:      MvSijll
 LinkedIn NL-Profiel: http://nl.linkedin.com/in/sijll
 LinkedIn EN-Profile: http://linkedin.com/in/sijll/en

 Microsoft Certified Professional,
 Microsoft Certified System Engineer,
 Microsoft Certified System Administrator,
 Microsoft Certified Small Business Specialist,
 UNIX System-V Certified Administrator I+II,
 FortiNet Certified Network/System Professional.
 Certified Internet Specialist,