Have you ever wondered what the relation between Microsoft and independent software developers is? Well, James Plamondon a Microsoft technical evangelist has provided an answer: pawns. Nothing but pawns.

"The role of ISVS. ISVs - independent software vendors - are pawns in the struggle between platform vendors. They are very valuable pawns in the struggle however. We cannot succeed without them. If you've ever tried to play chess with only the pieces oin the back row, you've experienced losing, OK, because you've got to have those pawns. They're essential. So you can't win without them, and you have to take good care of them. You can't let them feel like they're pawns in the struggle," reads a fragment of the speech of Plamondon to members of Microsoft's relations development group.

And just to provide the cherry on the cake, Plamondon compared the relationship with an Independent Software vendor to a one-night-stand. Microsoft has differentiated itself from the comments calling them isolate and inappropriate. According to the Redmond Company, Plamondon's affirmation was his own and did not illustrate Microsoft's official position and policy in any aspect.

Plamondon later apologized for his affirmation in an email to Computerworld expressing regret over the use of the metaphor. "Describing key industry influencers as 'pawns' is both offensive and inaccurate," Plamondon explained. "It mischaracterizes the mutually supportive relationship that must exist between a platform vendor and its platforms' early adopters, such as that which Microsoft and independent software developers created in the 1990s. I regret having used the 'pawns' metaphor; I apologize for any misplaced ill will it may have caused towards Microsoft; and I won't use it in [the] future."