After many years of being an icon of teaching us all how to use Microsoft development tools, Mike Gunderloy decided he needed to transition himself away from a dependency on Microsoft for personal reasons stated in this blog post, the first of his alter-blog "A Fresh Cup".

It was a scary proposition, mostly because he has a family of 6 (including himself) to support.

It's been 7 months and in a recent "status report", Mike seems to be content with his progress, productive with his learning curve and getting work using his new tools.

I'm not sure if I could go through the refactoring that he has done, going from "expert" to starting over again with a new set of development tools. On the other hand, he brings an enormous amount of IP to his adventure which makes the transition that much more interesting.

I think if I were going to make a big life change like this, it would be more along the lines of doing a dramatic life-style downsizing and returning to my love of potting (as in making clay pots and sculptures) and that just ain't gonna happen any time soon.

I have an enormous amount of respect for Mike on many levels and his commitment to following (and following through on) what he believes in is pretty impressive.