Can ColdFusion Survive Under Microsoft?

Speculation goes, as it usually does, Microsoft is thinking of buying Adobe outright. We know Adobe is in a bad shape. And maybe Adobe likes the idea of being under Microsoft’s roof. Personally, I care about neither Microsoft nor Adobe. I do care about ColdFusion. I care about ColdFusion because ColdFusion is my life––I make my living from it, and I wouldn’t want any harm to come to that.

Macromedia treated ColdFusion warmly and genuinely––that is, until Shantanu Narayen bullied Macromedia with numerous lawsuits in order to force a merger, as some allege. One can say with confidence that ColdFusion was further developed under Adobe’s roof, but I always had a the feeling that ColdFusion was a sort of Cinderella in the house of Adobe. Whenever I looked into Adobe documentation or examples––the inDesign server, for instance––there were no ColdFusion examples. But there were php and .net examples, all right. Humans seek patterns and draw conclusions––that’s what I was doing.

I have a picture in my mind: Microsoft sends FoxPro into a broom closet under the stairs, where all the spiders and bugs take daily refuge. It’s cold and dark, and Microsoft keeps FoxPro there until cold hands extract its vital organs and implant them into MS Access and MS Exchange. FoxPro died alone. There are no drums, no bagpipes.

If ColdFusion goes under Microsoft’s control, it is quite possible ColdFusion will get to have long conversations with FoxPro and the many others who share the same broom closet. Railo may able to keep ColdFusion developers alive for awhile––if Microsoft allows Railo to stay alive. But without enterprise level support and confidence, Railo/ColdFusion will become like PostgreSQL––brilliantly capable, but uneventful and uninteresting. BlueDragon may survive with their current cliental, and it even may able to receive a few Adobe ColdFusion Clients too, but Microsoft will absorb the majority into their own platforms.

Is this the correct time for ColdFusion developers to seriously invest in those horrible Microsoft Exams?