Another step towards open source: Bill Hilf becomes Microsoft’s GM of Server Strategy

Watching Microsoft deal with open source’s popularity kind of mirrors the Five Steps of Grief, normally applied when someone faces a terrible loss. Those steps are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
We saw all of the stages initially: Microsoft blew off open source efforts; executives got mad and called it names; we had sites like “Get the Facts,†which seemed to be a way to bargain out; depression was likely behind the lack of execution and some of the commentary in unauthorized internal Microsoft blog entries; and now Microsoft has reached acceptance, putting its lead open source guy in charge of server strategy.