there are two issues involve here. 1) business strategy, 2) being Mr. nice. if google's openness is a business strategy, then there is no excuse to point the finger to microsoft. if google is just a nice guy, why change b/c ms being a jerk?
ok. i know folks are afraid of saying it, let me do it: Larry Page and Google are evil. Larry Page, in his best, will be an other John Sculley.