If you aren't convinced that Microsoft is running scared, their latest PR debacle may do it. It's bad enough that they are so successful that they have a bully image, but now they have two major operating systems on their tail and closing in - one in the consumer market and the other in the server market.

All of this makes it hard to plan on a good direction as a developer. Do I stretch myself thin and learn two or three application platforms or do I bet the farm and try to be an expert in one? Right now I have the luxury to plan this because I don't know much about any platform. I think it's safe to bet that open standards will be more common, but that's about it. You still need to be familiar with platform APIs to be useful to any company.