Yeah, I don't really get that above post at all. Perhaps it's just because I haven't strayed too far into the web/mobile space (Dart, Android applications, etc.), but when I think of the "programming space", I think of Microsoft (VS, C#, XNA, .NET, etc.) much quicker than I do Google.

Didn't Microsoft deprecate XNA? So now Monogame is taking over?

When I think 'programming space' I think open-source - C, C++, Java, Mono, Javascript, Python, Ruby, R, Lisps, Rust, Dart, Go, Haskell, OCaml, etc...

Google doesn't immediately come to mind because they just use and give back to the OSS space, not caring too much to lock developers in.

Tell that people who started projects in GWT ;-) (which by itself is quite horribile as it's Java, but not quite Java and you can't use most of the libs out there because the class library is very crippled)

Do you mean Visual Studio or their languages? If the former, that's a tool. They make good tools, no doubt, but closed tools aren't really conducive to open innovation. They've made good languages, but again I wouldn't want to get tied down to a closed platform.

Microsoft has done a good amount of interesting R&D.