Last week, Microsoft made huge waves when it announced that its long-proprietary .Net application framework was now available as open source, completely rocking the Redmond, Wash., giant's cross-platform strategy and public image, all in one fell swoop.
It's the latest, and arguably the biggest shift in strategy for Microsoft as new CEO Satya Nadella steers the company away from its proprietary past toward a future as an open services platform.
This week is the TopCoder Open, which, for competitive coders, is like the World Series or the International, depending on how nerdy you are, with 1,400 developers in attendance and $260,000 worth of prizes on the line. Microsoft's developer evangelist Matt Thompson took the stage to talk about the kinder, gentler Microsoft and why students, startups, and anybody with an interest in coding should take the company seriously.