Microsoft has released the Hyper-V integration Linux drivers as GPL v2.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10290686-16.html

This is pretty cool news. I've been using Hyper-V, and for the most part, I like it. It isn't as full-featured as VMWare, but it is cheap, and nicer than any of the Linux solutions.

The biggest drawback has been guest OS. Suse included the driver, but any other Linux distro runs a bit slowly (and Fedora requires a hack).

Hyper-V isn't suitable for all situations, but this helps expand it.

Google announced that they would be releasing the Wave source code.

While Wave, the Google offering, did not succeed, there is a lot of interest in the underlying protocol and reference implementation.

When the "Software MegaCorp Sues Over Some Patent" scenario was tossed about, it was usually Microsoft cast as the villain, with the usual "Watch out for Google!" voice or two. Yet, after Oracle acquired Sun, it wasn't really a surprise to learn they were choosing to be less "open" and more "profit oriented".

Microsoft recently changed the license for the DLR to Apache 2.0. Is this a change of heart for Microsoft?

No, not really. However, they do seem to be more "in tune" with the rest of the industry. For the past few years, they've had to fumble around with a suddenly-changing landscape while relying on good, but not great, technology.

The reality of the market is that a lot of genuinely superior software is free, as in beer and speech. If it can be said that Microsoft is a marketing company, then it can also be said that they're good at it.