Competition versus co-operation

Rocky raises an eyebrow at the idea some folk at MS would like to have their own nDoc tool in VS.NET. I don’t see this as a crushing open source thing, more it’s giving customers a better integrated experience.  Having the tool in the box makes things simpler, more standardized, and easier to synchronize with MSDN documentation to name just a few. 

Of course that doesn’t mean they have to compete, instead they could co-operate.  MS did this with obfuscation for .NET, which in my opinion was actually selling its customers short.  In this case the co-operation means that out of the box you only get the “community edition” and have to pay more for full obfuscation.  There co-operation means that a more powerful better integration solution from MS is probably long off (please let me be wrong there <g>)
Likewise with Rational, MS has co-operated with them for years.  Interestingly enough SQL reporting services sounds a new direction there. 

With open Source software though, who does MS make the “deal” with?  Added to that, it can’t be an OSS license that requires MS’s software to be open source also.  So is OSS its own worse enemy when it comes to MS, making it difficult if not impossible for MS to integrate that into package solutions?

As for nDoc, I can understand why MS would wan to create their own solution  as there are a number of major wholes in documentation and solution management that nDoc doesn’t address.  Sorry, can’t say more on that yet …..