Slashdot: Microsoft acquires Winternals and Sysinternals. Regardless of how you feel about Microsoft, this is great news for Winternals the company and Mark Russinovich the industry figure. (For those that don’t recognize the name, think Sony BMG: Russinovitch’s blog at Sysinternals blew the whistle on Sony BMG’s rootkit.)
It’s clear that this is a talent acquisition; Microsoft has said they are aware of some product overlap with Winternals’s product line, which generally means some sort of phased migration plan is in order.
I think the Slashdot advice to download the free Winternals utilities now is a very very good idea. I always forget that Regmon exists until I need it, and then I wonder how I lived without it.
I also find the statement that they’ll rationalize the Sysinternals community features with Microsoft.com offerings somewhat disturbing. If the value of Mark’s blog, for instance, is its refusal to spout the Microsoft party line and thus carrying a strong reputation for truthful investigation into technical issues, aren’t they destroying some value by bringing him into the fold? Or are they afraid of having another high-profile blogger get too much of an independent rep, as Scoble did?