Microsoft has finally flexed its muscle in the IoC "Inversion of Control" arena

Over at CodePlex, Microsoft has just released its own version of an IoC library named "Unity".  If your not familiar with the concept of IoC, A.K.A. Dependency Injection, it is the idea/model that within a multi-tiered application (which is almost the only type of .NET apps most people write these days), each layer should not have to know anything about the layer above, or below it. 

If you want to read more on the concepts behind it and history:

Dependency Injection

I like the trend that I see coming out of Microsoft with this recent release and the release of their MVC framework.  They seem to be really listening to the community and releasing "best practice" libraries and frameworks for use.  The "Alt.Net" movement really brings along with it some great ideas and ways of developing software, and IoC is big player in that.  What I think is REALLY the benefit here for all developers, is now that Microsoft has "backed" this concept, more managers and decision makers inside of companies will look differently upon using some of these technologies.  A lot of times when developers try and use or push new/"open source" technologies inside their companies, decision makers don't always give fair consideration unless the technology is from Microsoft.  Now that Microsoft has entered the arena, it might give developers more of a chance to put some of these technologies/concepts into use within their companies.