[bovermyer]

A lot of people seem to think that steps like this are just Microsoft catching up. Which, I suppose, they are. But there's something else here too - this kind of thing, where Microsoft is opening up to the open source community, releasing more free tools, releasing more open source projects, all started happening when Satya Nadella took the reins.

I think what we're looking at is a CEO that gets it and is trying to move as fast as possible to turn the monolithic company around. That's no mean feat, considering how long Microsoft has gone with everything being behind closed doors in a licensing maze.

I for one approve of this trend.

[teh_klev]

This movement with Microsoft has been going on long before Satya took over the reins. I'd say Scott Guthrie probably seeded this goal to become more open (-source) around 2007/8. It's taken a while to achieve because...lawyers.

[runjake]

My impression is that it's taken a while to achieve primarily because of leadership roadblocks, which Nadella changed.

I've heard this from MSFT employees and I believe Ballmer made a post-retirement comment in an interview about the same: that this all started after he left.

[teh_klev]

Oh I totally agree that upper management roadblocks slowed things down and that Nadella is a breath of fresh air compared to Ballmer (though I do have a soft spot for the man). But the seeds were sown by division staff such as Guthrie (and Hanselmann, Phil Haack etc) as far back as 2007, long before Nadella became a rising star, this isn't all as a result of Nadella's Perestroika and Glasnost. That said there may have been informal conversations between Guthrie and Nadella over the years speculating as to how they could change direction.

[elboru]

Staya Nadella might be accelerating things, but Microsoft has been moving through this direction before Staya's arrival (ASP.NET MVC was open sourced in April 2009), actually I see Staya Nadella taking reins as another step Microsoft took to be more open.

[dragonwriter]

> Staya Nadella might be accelerating things, but Microsoft has been moving through this direction before Staya's arrival (ASP.NET MVC was open sourced in April 2009),

Satya Nadella has been a Microsoft exec since 2007, so events in 2009 are not before his arrival, and he was credited for being instrumental in driving this kind of transition in focus before becoming CEO.

> actually I see Staya Nadella taking reins as another step Microsoft took to be more open.

Sure, it was a vote to double down on the things Nadella was driving as a key leader before becoming CEO.

[keithg]

Scott Hanselman has been an outspoken advocate for this type of move within Microsoft. Hard to say how much influence he has had, but I think it's probably not insignificant.

[teh_klev]

And as I mentioned in another comment, Scott Guthrie. He really seemed to give the Dev Div a boot up the backside when he took over.

[phaemon]

The SDXC card format specifies exFAT as a mandatory feature - a proprietary, patent-encumbered filesystem from Microsoft. This makes it very difficult to legally support these SD cards in Open Source operating systems.

When they stop pulling crap like that, maybe I'll believe in the "new Microsoft".

[overcertified]

Get used to it

[m3sh]

http://www.wired.com/2011/11/how-microsoft-learned-to-stop-w... this article actually gives a very good information about how things started to change.

[tempodox]

Agreed. I'm still far from being a fan, but it's definitely a move in the right direction.