I was perusing Chris Bowen's blog and saw some exciting news from Microsoft:They've lauched a new program called "BizSpark" that offers "...tools, mentoring, and support" to the startup community. Basically you get a crapload of free software (easily over $100,000 worth), support (over the web), guidance (supposedly including investors?), and visibility (always a good thing). More saliently, you're able to use that software on live, production servers once you launch. Holy crap!

 I think this is a great idea for Microsoft. So many startups are going on Ruby On Rails, Python (Django), and PHP, and that's a big risk for Microsoft. Can't blame them for trying to get in on the entrepreneurial marketplace.

I've long wanted to start a business, and always assumed that I'd have to do it on an open-source stack. This would definitely make me reconsider those choices.