I checked into this last year. If you want to develop software for the desktop, and become an ISV like Xobni, they actually have some really good deals to help

I checked into this last year. If you want to develop software for the desktop, and become an ISV like Xobni, they actually have some really good deals to help get you off the ground. And, I tend to be fairly OS agnostic. I like to use whatever technology is the best fix for the problem. I'm certainly not shilling for MSoft, I'm doing all my work on Linux at this point. But, I might decide to switch in a couple of years, we'll see. I forget if it's through their Start up Accelerator program, or another program, but you can get an "Action Pack" of Microsoft software: https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/managemembership/actionpack/mapscontents https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/managemembership/ac... And, you get all of this software for the low low price of $299. I'm sure that Xobni is using this. It's a very cheap way to get a bunch of Windows Licenses. If you don't mind being Windows based, it's a great way to lower your Licensing fees while you're getting off the ground. It's a pain to develop for the Windows Desktop, but there is a good bit of money to be made. And, if they keep developing Languages like PowerShell, IronPython, IronRuby and F#, it might become less painful for language geeks/hacker types in the next couple of years. C# already has some pretty cool functional programming features.