This is brought up every time Microsoft and Github are discussed, and it seems like a very shallow thing to fixate on. Is it impossible that a company, with a new CEO and leadership team, would discard a strategy from 25 years ago (more like 50 years ago by non-tech industry timescales)? Especially now that its market dominance is fundamentally different and reduced (likely permanently) compared to the 90s? What evidence is there that Nadella is a Manchurian candidate for Ballmer forces?

Note that my issue with EXX being brought up is that it is superficial, to the point of being deceptive to the kind of threats Microsoft+Github are most likely to pose if Nadella et al do have their own malicious plans. But I think Microsoft's support for a healthy OSS ecosystem, via Github and things like VS Code, is genuine. Not necessarily out of altruism, but because it's one of the few ways they can have an edge into the future and not fall into stagnation like IBM.