People tend to think of Microsoft as much more backward than they actually are. Yes, Microsoft isn't the brighest when it comes to open-source, but they do at least try. And yes, if you're going to live in the Enterprise world, things are a little old fashioned, but that's a reflection of the market, not the vendor. Microsoft makes tonnes of neat stuff that never gains traction because people seem to have convinced themselves that MS is an enterprise-only shop...

Some examples:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/efdesign/archive/2010/06/01/conventi...

http://microsoft.com/web/webmatrix

http://ironruby.codeplex.com/ | http://ironpython.codeplex.com/

http://visitmix.com/ | http://edge.technet.com

http://officelabs.com | http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/lightswitch

http://microsoft.com/express | http://microsoft.com/dreamspark | http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.asp...