This cannot be stressed more. Microsoft's business practices have not changed, nor has their mission, this is just another ploy to lock consumers into their ecosystem....

Wouldn't you say that all the competitors are following in Microsoft's footsteps?

It isn't like Apple and Google are not also trying to lock you into their platforms.

Apple definitely is. They used the same strategy by switching to x86 and making it easy to run Windows on a Mac.

Google is a bit different, since they have a distributed platform that you can use on literally, any OS. They definitely want people on their platform, but so far they haven't taken any steps to 'lock' people in (I mean, they renewed their contract with Mozilla, they open-sourced Chromium/Chromium OS, Android, etc...).

I suspect most people are in Google's ecosystem simply because it's better. And until Google say, makes Chrome and Google services run only on Chromebooks and Motorola phones, I'd say they haven't behaved the same as Apple and Microsoft.

I find this interesting, does platform lock-in have to mean that you've bought a technical platform (OS)? Google locks you in by having your data on their services. The new 'lock-in' is cloud storage and cloud based apps. I think the big money isn't from directly locking in consumers, but rather locking in enterprise. That's where Microsoft also made a ton of its money.

Eh, Apple and Google have a pretty good thing going right now. I'm not sure if we need microsoft to come in and potentially rain on everyone's parade.

I know "competition is good", but microsoft isn't very good at competition.

Apple, yes. Google... not that much, for now at least. You can still decide not to use their appstore or their applications at all when you run Android.

Eighteen words: better or worse than Google using their deep pockets to make free alternatives until there aren't alternatives?

Microsoft can't stop the success of other platforms as we've seen repeatedly in the 8000 years since that catchphrase hit the intertube forum messages. Interoperability will happen eventually regardless of whether MS initiates it or the EU demands it, because one day someone's going to be pissed off they're expected to "re-buy" half their apps and forget everything else just because they bought a new phone.

Judging by Google's tracking record, worse, much much worse.

Google Chrome vs. Microsoft's IE6, Android vs WinMo 6/6.5, Gmail vs. 2004-2009 Hotmail. I'd rather put up with Google's decent-but-free alternatives than Microsoft's we-are-the-leader-so-we-will-stagnate-until-the-EU-demands-it-which-could-be-6-years-maybe-more.