Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
Found this one at Scripting News also:
Charles Cooper wrote on the independent developer’s struggle from being overwhelmed by the big companies such as Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle.
He asks the question, “As for the remaining independents still fighting the good fight?”
There has been, is, and will always be big companies. One time, even Microsoft was nothing more than a couple of college kids. Dorky college kids. The key issue that I’m most concerned about and that Cooper discusses is the standards organizations tied-at-the-hip attitude about the big players. If anything bothers me, that bothers me.
What to do?
Look around you. If you build something good, people will use it. If you build something new, people will be interested. If you open doors, generate interfaces, and make something lighter, faster, more workable and exciting—you won’t be ignored forever. You’ll see the prize at the end of the techie rainbow.
If you just schlep along subsisting on BigCo crumbs, all you’ll ever see is their ass in your face.