Dev Dawn

An observant Bill actually read a licence agreement on an update from microsoft the other day.

It’s for the .Net Framework .. and the point of interest is :

3.4 Benchmark Testing. You may not disclose the results of any benchmark test of the .NET Framework component of the Software to any third party without Microsoft’s prior written approval.

What’s going on here?

• Is .NET so bad that they have to put a nda (of sorts) into their licence agreement?
• That’s pretty much screwing with the whole idea of transparent business, because how else is the public going to make informed decisions if the results are filtered by the people who make the product?
• Mostly, what are they doing? Here I was, fervently hoping that the jugganaut was heading into a good direction. Now, I guess it’s such a big jugganaut that some things slip under the radar. But this is a licence agreement. For one of their stud products.

What is doing MS?

One question I have (apart from the others), is can they legally enforce this? Can you make an edict that noone can report on their experiences with your software unless they first pass said experiences through your own propaganda sieve?

This has been another gear grinding session from the makers of Dev Dawn .. come for the drivel, stay for the angry, disenfranchised programming rants.