I was kind of surprised by this. Has Microsoft done this before (contributed to an Open Source project not of their own making) or is this new for them?
IIRC they've contributed a few bits and pieces to Apache and the Linux kernel (drivers), though I think they've just been for interop with other MSFT stuff.
My fear is that it would be an opportunity for an old trick of theirs: embrace and extend. If so, we'd be in the 'embrace' phase.
I'm hoping not. They've been getting more open-sourcey in the last couple years. One alternative is that they just saw a great model and have no need to reinvent the wheel. It means an easier .net onramp for developers who already know jQuery.
That certainly comes to mind. The question is, how could they take jQuery in an incompatible direction, tying developers into their version, thus gaining control over the project? I can't really see a way it could happen here. Pulling a classic 'embrace and extend' would mean rather than contributing to the original product, they'd make their own subtly incompatible version.
I... I have nothing bad to say about that.
Hmmm.