Flutterby™! : Microsoft on Linux

A News.com interview with Peter Houston gives me the impression that someone at Microsoft is "getting it". They've dropped the angry scared rhetoric and are realizing that this is a force with which they're really going to have to compete:

I still believe Linux is an extension of the Unix paradigm. It's a command-line-focused approach that's not particularly designed to be user friendly. The Windows approach is very different. I will say that the adoption of Linux is likely to be bounded by how many companies are happy with Unix. Will it have an ability to be persuasive to people that it's a more cost-effective version of Unix?

While I've no doubt that they're still going to make incompatible implementations and play the embrace and extend game, this guy looks like he's also doing some straight-shooting. Now if they can just enhance .MSI files to provide the features and ease of use of the .DEB or .RPM packaging, make the OS not crap itself on simple USB issues, and finally ship a production quality version of Visual Studio .NET I might actually warm up to the company.