WTF?! Microsoft Becomes a Platinum ASF Sponsor?

When you were growing up I'm sure you knew some kid who always seemed to have the cruelest intentions. S/he always possessed ulterior motives, trying to better her/his social position using lies and deceit veiled by declarations of pure intentions. Yet, in the end, they'd just wind up screwing people yet again leaving them feeling like fools for actually wanting to believe that s/he may have actually changed her/his ways. Well this is kinda what I'm feeling right now, just waiting for the punchline.

I found out about this announcement early this morning and yet I'm still perplexed to discover that Microsoft has become a platinum sponsor of the Apache Software Foundation. I certainly trust the folks at the ASF who made this happen, but I can't let go of Microsoft's past FUD against open source and Linux so easily (remember the 'Get the Facts' campaign?). Has the poor behavior and shady tactics surrounding the ISO <quote>approval</quote> of OOXML as an international standard already been forgotten? This move really smells of a distraction and a method of getting the open source community to assist Microsoft in leveling (and eventually tipping) the playing field in the Windows v. Linux battle. A brilliant move, really - let's pay the folks we're trying to beat so that they will help us beat them.

Of course, I don't discount the fact that someone can turn over a new leaf - and I really would like this to be the case. I just hope that the fox has not been let into the henhouse bearing a bucket of grain.