"In its short but illustrious history the FOSS movement has been
accused of being akin to communism. And while the bad old days of
the McCarthy era are over, this view still makes people a bit
antsy. Not many people want to be seen internationally as the reds
under the bed, and using the communist label is still a convenient
way of writing off somebody you don't like. However, there have
been some interesting new developments with Microsoft saying things
recently that suggests a couple of things: Microsoft have decided
that they will begrudgingly admit that there are some merits in
open source (previously referred to by their illustrious leader as
"communism"); and that Microsoft are softening in their old age and
have decided that being all powerful is no fun if everyone thinks
you're the school bully..."