Did Microsoft just become viable again?

It would seem that Satya Nadella is the CEO Microsoft needed after BG stood down, his focus on mobile and the cloud have brought the company back into the conversation, in much the same way as the iMac did for Apple.

So do MS have the equivalent of the iPod, something that will propel them back into the limelight and put everyone else on the back foot? Maybe!

 By announcing the open sourcing of .NET, beyond the extant Mono stack, Microsoft will not only shore up their enterprise presence but potentially establish .NET as a first class citizens in the startup world.

The only question is, can they overcome their questionable reputation amongst the Silicon Valley crowd, but with Apple and Google suffering their own reputation issues, Microsoft may be ready to not only regain its technical reputation but, perhaps, establish itself as a the first choice for those seeking open platforms.

It'll be interesting to see if he can keep them on track.