Any MS Developer Refugees?

[Matteus2010]

I have spent 10 years working with MS SQL Server, two and a bit developing in .Net (VB and C#...no ASP) and used Ubuntu for two years at home as a personal ethical choice.

I've now become hacked off (no pun intended) with MS attitude to their customers, particularly small to medium sized businesses who don't have unlimited budgets to upgrade on every new software release. This isn't a MS rant though.

I am seriously considering switching from the Dark Side and spending a year learning mid-level Linux sysadmin skills, MySQL & PHP & Apache, and possibly some Perl or Python, getting as many certificates as possible, and then looking for work with these skills.

Has anyone else done similar? Did you find employers valued your experience on MS products? Are their specific skillsets you would recommend? Did you have to take a salary cut?
How easy was the switch technically-were you heavily challenged by the new knowledge or was it a case of 'oh so thats the equivalent of this'?

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has made a similar move.

[LeeNukes]

I did similar apart from the getting qualifications. I made the concious decision a number of years back that I wanted to work on supporting Linux based environments as opposed to Windows and Microsoft ones.

There were lots of reasons for this, they interested me more, I could actually obtain the software legally to play with and learn about, they generally performed better and I had more control over it.

Also, I personally felt that any Tom, Dick or Harry could go out and get an MS qualification and get a job with it, I'd worked with a lot of these "qualified professionals" and they weren't worth the money the cert cost. Unless it was something to do with Microsoft, they wouldn't have a clue. Even then, they didn't know why something was broken in such a way.

I've had jobs working with Microsoft products and other proprietary applications, and I was depressed, the money wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I wanted to do, and any suggestions to assist with free programs, got the cold shoulder. So I left, I'm now working full time with Open Source programs, I'm not a programmer and my scripting skills are poor. My focus is mainly towards server environments and virtual servers.

I've found experience with Linux and other technologies is more of a boon then an MSC. Although, it does depend on who is hiring you. If you have an RHCE or a Linux+ then you might get somewhere, but when I've been hiring, I look for experience and that someone can walk the walk rather then just talk the talk with their CV.