While I agree with what you say for the most part (especially about MS making non-standard implementations of standards), Mr. Ballmer makes an interesting point about the US Government paying to have GPL'ed code written. Is it valid for the US Government to spend taxpayer money on GPL'ed code. I would suspect that it is a good use of taxpayer money as the code is returned to everyone. As someone else stated anyone can learn from it, and the lessons learned can be applied to anything (open or closed source).
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While I agree with what you say for the most part (especially about MS making non-standard implementations of standards), Mr. Ballmer makes an interesting point about the US Government paying to have GPL'ed code written. Is it valid for the US Government to spend taxpayer money on GPL'ed code. I would suspect that it is a good use of taxpayer money as the code is returned to everyone. As someone else stated anyone can learn from it, and the lessons learned can be applied to anything (open or closed source).