[iamthepieman]

This is as insightful comment and the points you raise may be important for a startup, SAAS or software product company to consider. A lot of organizations use and develop software but aren't software companies.

"A fully heterogenous system with a sole vendor mediating your access" is a good thing for these companies.

I do a lot of contract work for state and local governments. They are already fully invested in SQL Server, IIS and Active Directory. For both these organizations and myself as a contractor to them I see the increased openness of Microsoft as only a good thing.