[DougWebb]

Of course it's reactionary; the entirety of ASP.Net MVC is a reaction to web frameworks on other platforms. The key, I think, is that it's a very positive way to react. In the past Microsoft always took the negative road, trying to destroy competition, rather than the positive road of integrating and collaborating with competition and letting their products stand on their technical merits.

[fooqux]

>In the past Microsoft always took the negative road, trying to destroy competition, rather than the positive road of integrating and collaborating...

Wait, what? Have you never heard of the phrase "embrace, extend, and exterminate" before? What you describe is simply step one of their modus operandi.

I think the only difference between the 1990's Microsoft and the one we have today is they aren't as good at the exterminating part. They still extend things like crazy, but either they really are trying to play nice or they just don't have the weight to exterminate much any more (that wasn't already swalloed by them). My opinion is it's likely a mixture of the two.

[wting]

It may also be a product of age / experience. If you were involved in the 90's tech industry, it's very hard to forget MS's era of "embrace, extend, and exterminate".

I view Apple's closed ecosystems with a similar sense of apprehension.

[pjmlp]

Personally, I think if the roles were inverted, the computing world would be much worse.

[jules]

ASP.NET MVC is a case of embrace, extend, exterminate?! Please think rationally.

[_random_]

This way we can get a better designed evolutionary version of concept, rather than a pioneering early version, e.g. C# vs Java.