Well DesktopStandard has been acquired by Microsoft which means Darren Mar-Elia is off and running with his own startup full time now.
http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/gpoguy/archive/2006/10/02/DesktopStandard-acquired-by-Microsoft.aspx
I have known Darren quite a while now. I first met him in an official meeting where he, in his capacity as the CTO of Quest, was trying to sell a customer (who I happened to work for) some Quest products. That didn’t go particularly well for Quest but it was only because of Quest’s licensing terms and lack of an Enterprise License option and the customer’s lack of excitement for any product that charges a per user or per object charge.
While we didn’t buy anything, it still was a good meeting because Darren impressed me with his technical responses and etched his name in my mind. Since then, Darren became an MVP which gave us the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of time talking in various settings, both formal and informal and discussed briefly earlier this year what he was thinking about doing so I think I have a good understanding of how Darren looks at the world.Â
From that understanding and my experiences with Darren I can absolutely back anything he says he is going to do because I know he has the intelligence and wherewithal to do it. He has both the business knowledge and the technical knowledge. To put it simply… I know Darren can produce because he already has; he is a known quantity, that is proof enough for me.
I don’t hope Darren will succeed, I expect it. Along those lines, anything he needs from me, he knows I will assist with. 🙂
 joe
