as a 20 year observer of microsoft, I have to say this is not amazing at all... and I do not mean that as a random put down of Microsoft. Microsoft often develops things in response to demand... but they don't always fit in their system well, and thus are not really used in the spirit of the demand... meanwhile, bullet items are added to many a software box and magazine review.
I would not presume to know more that Microsoft about that as a business practice, but as an engineering practice, it speaks for itself. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list