Re: Stockholm syndrome
I hated Gnome when I first encountered it -- too different from what I was used to. It's now my desktop environment of choice. It's minimal in all the right ways, and just "gets it done".
I interacted with Miguel a few times professionally a long time ago. First class guy, first class thinker.
"Embrace Extend Extinguish"? You're skating to where the puck was 15 years ago. Microsoft makes a ton of money by being a trusted partner for corporations. Those corporations aren't stupid -- they're making choices, and they're fully aware of lock-in and other factors. It's often cheaper for them to stay with what they have...but they like options.
Cross-platform Mono is another option.
I work for a competitor to Microsoft. It's important to be realistic about the value proposition MSFT offers -- to compete better.