Speaking facetiously
one thing I noticed about Microsoft in the noughties, was how much like IBM as reported by various magazines in the late eighties, Microsoft had become. Arrogant, up themselves - and believe you me, I found an IBM droid I talked to in 1992 about OS/2 2.0 rather hard to take. Then various techies ported Linux to IBM mainframes, both externally and internally, and IBM found itself a Linux and FOSS company by default.
I think the same thing occurred with Microsoft. Enough techies during Ballmer's tenure as CEO were fooling around with Linux and FOSS behind the scenes, and sometimes even talking about it, and Ballmer found himself outflanked. So they jettisoned Ballmer (in no small part due to people losing interest in Microsoft because the 'Net was taking centre stage, and Microsoft had missed that boat with its MSN offering in the mid 90s, likewise the smartphone. Remember WinCE?)
So they've had to adapt, or perish, same as everybody else. And they're taking their time about it, unfortunately. Microsoft's older software's of historical interest - not quite antiquarian - and having legal access to a lot more of that source code than they've so far released, would be helpful. And appreciated.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
