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.

I can't say whether or not Microsoft would've been better off without the big Vista "reset" which delayed it so long. I can say that the results seem to be worth it. Windows 7/Windows 2008 is a good operating system, and the stuff under the hood allows for much more.

So maybe, just maybe, they have the right tools to build Really Cool Stuff. What then?

Apple is today's poster child for "People will pay extra for something much better than the alternatives". If the alternative is "free and good enough or better", then Microsoft loses, and they might as well play along - much as they did with the Iron languages. It is better to have something in play than to miss out on the opportunities.

Meanwhile, they have to start delivering products which are just that much better than the OSS alternatives. There's a lot of different types of environments out there, all of which have their own specialized needs and wants.

Can they do it? A common belief among OSS advocates is that there isn't a better way to do it; the bazaar will always outdo the cathedral. Of course, that's what "everybody" thought about proprietary software - it was too expensive to do unless you had a monolith paying for it.

All that has really changed is the bar for what is considered "adequate software". Ultimately, it depends if Microsoft can find a way to build Very Large Complex Applications on a scale no one has achieved before. If they can do that, then they have the opportunity to make the gobs of money they have grown so accustomed to.