Read this open letter from the leaders of the open source and free software movements.
This is an important letter, because it brings together some of the people Microsoft wants to split apart. It appears that they’re not falling for the standard divide-and-conquer moves this time, however.
The debate is an essential one. There are some legitimate reasons to be wary of the GNU General Public License, and Microsoft isn’t wrong to address those.
I predict Microsoft will soon challenge the GPL in court, or sue one of the companies offering open-source products — which are not the same, in many cases, as GPL’d software. The goal will surely be to freeze markets while the suit is pending. If random BigCos are deterred from doing business with open source vendors, Microsoft will gain at everyone else’s expense.