Well, the Governor just presented her budget proposal for the coming year. And it's not good. WWU's budget is slated for a further 6.2% whack of state-funds. We survived last year in large part due to the traditional budgetary techiniques of cost shifting, reserve funds, and one-time funds. Those are pretty much gone now, so this will come out of bone.
Dire? Yes.
Dire? Yes.
...and this one is the topper. I've been reading your blog for some time (long-time listener, first-time caller)... Ever since the decision was made to leave Novell products, I see time after time that you are able to do so much less, with so much more. Every hurdle that was a speedbump before is a brick wall now; one that the administration is ever-so-happy to accept (or spend more time/effort/money to surmount), as long as it is for MS. Now the topper: You paid more for all that pain, and now you have less. Of course, it is understandable that budgets are cut in trying times. Going forward, your upper-types will *really* start to feel the financial screws of MS being turned upon their juevos. How? You have to accept more limitations, short-comings, and work-arounds (where possible) since you won't be able to afford the third-party solutions to make everything work correctly. Remember, times are tight for MS, too. Going forward, they'll be less and less inclined to gobble up companies that write good software that makes theirs work... MS makes some awesome software, but it isn't 100% awesome. So I really don't understand the all-MS mentality. I don't understand why people don't use MS products where they are strongest, and integrate them with other products (where possible) for their respective strengths. Integration. Not bigotry and blindness.