This article from Wired News gives a nice, concise description of the implications of Covalent’s (open-source Apache server’s) decision to support Microsoft’s .Net technology. This decision will create more choice in the web server market, and also bodes well for the good experimentation consequences of pluralistic technology use and development. However, this NYT article suggests that Microsoft has not dramatically shifted its position on open-source software, given that they characterize us as being in the waning period of the open-source software movement. Just because Microsoft says it’s so doesn’t make it so. Seeing how the open-source v. proprietary business models debate evolves, and the hybrid property rights mechanisms that arise from these evolutions, will be fascinating.