I have been using GNU/Linux and BSD on my personal machines since 2000, so the first part would not have blown my mind that much. For my needs (and Google's), quality operating systems were a commodity back then.
The second part, I don't know. Microsoft has been trying to move to a subscription-based model for a long time. Google Docs, GMail, Google Calendar were around back then, smart phones were becoming a thing. Microsoft moving away from traditional desktop and on-premises server software to a cloud-based model that would allow them collect "rent" instead of one-time license payments, that would not have sounded crazy. (Who knows - if they had tried to create a competing offer to Google's services that you did not have to pay for in sensitive data, they could have hit the Jackpot big time...)
Under those conditions, it makes much less sense for Microsoft to hold on to their code as they have done traditionally. But going from the company whose CEO publicly called FLOSS a "cancer" to a company that actively embraces it, that is a pretty huge change. When Nadella became CEO, I joked to a coworker that Microsoft was as good as dead, trying to go "cloud". I was obviously wrong on that one, and now I think if Ballmer had stayed as CEO, Microsoft would probably be much worse off.
Gmail, Docs, and Calendar weren't around in 2000. The first release of Gmail wasn't until invite-only beta in 2004[0] (invites were required until 2006/7); Google bought Upstartle (Writely -> Docs) and released Docs and Calendar in 2006[1][2].
I have been using GNU/Linux and BSD on my personal machines since 2000, so the first part would not have blown my mind that much. For my needs (and Google's), quality operating systems were a commodity back then.
The second part, I don't know. Microsoft has been trying to move to a subscription-based model for a long time. Google Docs, GMail, Google Calendar were around back then, smart phones were becoming a thing. Microsoft moving away from traditional desktop and on-premises server software to a cloud-based model that would allow them collect "rent" instead of one-time license payments, that would not have sounded crazy. (Who knows - if they had tried to create a competing offer to Google's services that you did not have to pay for in sensitive data, they could have hit the Jackpot big time...)
Under those conditions, it makes much less sense for Microsoft to hold on to their code as they have done traditionally. But going from the company whose CEO publicly called FLOSS a "cancer" to a company that actively embraces it, that is a pretty huge change. When Nadella became CEO, I joked to a coworker that Microsoft was as good as dead, trying to go "cloud". I was obviously wrong on that one, and now I think if Ballmer had stayed as CEO, Microsoft would probably be much worse off.