recently asked us whether Microsoft should be worried about Rails (I’m paraphrasing here, because I can’t remember the question exactly).

I think most people would have said no. I mean, c’mon – despite it’s momentum, Rails is still a tiny drop in the ocean of web development. There are a ton of ASP.NET developers out there, and lots of companies that will only want their projects done in .NET. Why in the world should Microsoft worry?

Well, we said Yes.

We said Microsoft should be very worried about Rails. I won’t go into all the reasons here – if anyone’s interested I can explain in another post.

But the really funny part, and the purpose of my quick post today, is that when we answered that question earlier this week, we had no idea what David would say at his keynote last night at RailsConf.

Like the Eye that was distracted by looking at enemy armies instead of taking notice of a small (but fatal) ring, Microsoft continues to be distracted by shipping Vista CTP RC2 Beta2, inventing really stupid names for its technology substrates (like the new names that replaced Indigo and Avalon), dividing its next “simple” OS into six or nine different editions (I’ve lost count), and generally missing the mark on every single software development project they’ve started over the past five years.

After hearing David’s keynote and seeing what he’s just committed into the Rails trunk, I hope the Eye continues to be distracted for a long, long time.