This is a long term trend that began with Gates leaving his position as CEO. I'd imagine the engineers have slowly been gaining more influence over time and mos

This is a long term trend that began with Gates leaving his position as CEO. I'd imagine the engineers have slowly been gaining more influence over time and most engineers can see the value of openness as it increases the scope of what they can achieve. The first echoes of this trend in my opinion were codeplex and providing sources for .NET.