Visual Studio Productivity Power Tools Open-Sourced

I'm not bitching about anything. I'm providing a contrary view to the effusive and largely uncritical praise that much of the tech press spews whenever MSFT announces that they've open sourced this tiny thing, or ported a part of that thing to a non-Windows OS.

If you read my other comments elsewhere on this page, it becomes clear that I very much want for MSFT to have stopped bullying, subverting (and impeding the function of) standards bodies, engaging in anticompetitive lock-out, and other such shady backroom dealings. MSFT is a big company that hires rather smart people. They could use their money and collective brainpower to do really great things for the computing community.

Thing is, those of us who've been around for at least the past twenty years have seen the "Good Microsoft" act, and we remember how that act was rather short-lived. If MSFT were to do something substantially significant (such as joining the OIN [0], making a public promise to remain a member and substantially participate in its proceedings for the next twenty years, as well as a public promise to never tamper with it or its proceedings [1]) before many of us old hands start thinking that this is an actual change in corporate direction.

[0] http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/

[1] That is, to never, ever do anything even remotely like the shit they did at ISO.