Microsoft Hearts Open Source (plus Silverlight)

Actually, Microsoft released a really big (and critical) portion of silverlight as open source. It's called DLR, or Dynamic Language Runtime.

This could be interesting, we could be seeing a Microsoft that starts using open source as a weapon against its competitors. And if they kill Flash, I won't miss it. I want to be able to disable sound on silverlight, and enable it at my choice. If MS will do that, I'll drink the kool-aid.

Microsoft is simply playing the odds and building a contingency strategy in the event Open Source should displace Windows on the desktop. There really is nothing new in this playbook - it's just an extension of Microsoft's "Embrace and extend" tactics that helped them achieve growth and dominance.

The Novell agreement and side projects like Linux support for Silverlight all tie in together as parts of a larger overall strategy. Microsoft knows that Windows and desktop operating systems in general are just plumbing for internet architectures and services. Web services will be the next big revenue shift, and right now Microsoft is struggling to reinvent itself, and loosen its dependence on the desktop as its primary revenue model. That's going to take years to play out, in both cases.

I'm sure somewhere deep inside Microsoft's "skunkworks" Office is being ported to Linux and Windows APIs layered on top of a Linux kernel. You don't wait for winds of change to blow before making your next move. You anticipate a change in direction before it happens.