"It's a shame because F# could become utterly awesome, but faces a hard battle under Microsoft's thumb."
That's a retarded comment.
Don Syme invented F# while at MSR. When he first created it, it was basically OCaml.NET (well, a very small OCaml subset), just as a proof of concept.
Now (last I checked, which was well over a year ago) it's one of four first-class languages with a full team behind it in DevDiv, enjoying equal support in VS.NET and other dev tools as C#, VC++, and VB.NET.
F# isn't under anyone's thumb; it's a Microsoft product through-and-through.
I'm sure this comment will fall on deaf ears, but please, Michael, try to restrict your comments to things you know something about.
I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. Anyone who thinks his experiences on one team in a 100,000 person company (or even a 10,000 person company!) are in any way broadly representative is full of shit. Microsoft has some dysfunctional teams, as does anyone, but it has plenty of good ones, too. I worked there for quite a few years after college and it was a great learning experience. I had friends in other teams who had both good and bad experiences. It just depends.
OP was an "account manager," which means that anything he tells you has absolutely no relevance to the engineering side of things.
That's a retarded comment.
Don Syme invented F# while at MSR. When he first created it, it was basically OCaml.NET (well, a very small OCaml subset), just as a proof of concept.
Now (last I checked, which was well over a year ago) it's one of four first-class languages with a full team behind it in DevDiv, enjoying equal support in VS.NET and other dev tools as C#, VC++, and VB.NET.
F# isn't under anyone's thumb; it's a Microsoft product through-and-through.
I'm sure this comment will fall on deaf ears, but please, Michael, try to restrict your comments to things you know something about.