Microsoft is hosting the TechEd conference this week. One of the announcements to come out is a new version of Visual Studio, called Visual Studio Shell. Reading some of the coverage, it sounds a lot like Eclipse. In fact, Peter Varholl of Remond Magazine points out that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, so I guess we should be flattered. 🙂
However, I think MS is missing one important principle. To be a successful platform you really need to eliminate barriers to entry and have a true Architecture of Participation. This includes not sending nasty letters to members of your community.
Ian Skerrett 
Ian, I am not a fan of Microsoft but I don’t think you are being fair to them. A cursory glance at Microsoft’s position on their site seems to indicate that what TestDriven.NET is doing is very likely unethical.
What if some company built an Eclipse plug-in that disabled the trial version limitations in any Eclipse based product? I can make a bet that any Eclipse committer is smart enough to do it…
Vineet,
You are probably right I have not been fair. I certainly don’t encourage people to violate license agreements, although it is not clear if this has happen.
I do believe it you want to create a platform, removing artificial barriers to innovation on that platform is key. Right now MS appears to still have some significant barriers. IMHO.