However, I’m still a little perturbed by this whole situation. There is so much ignorance with regard to RSS and Microsoft its frightening.

Let set the record straight. RSS is designed to be extended (slash, well formed web, dublin core, HELLO)! Microsoft is not adding there own crap to RSS, and they are not defying the RSS standard, and they are not trying to make RSS proprietary.

The Simple List Extension is a open, publicly available extension, that will not break RSS (although there were some issues with the original spec, this is being revised through a collaborative community process). The iTunes debacle isn’t about RSS extensions, its about putting Tradmarks in RSS extensions. Re-branding RSS isn’t about a Microsoft version of RSS, its just an Alias, because Acronyms don’t market well, and the term RSS scares average people.

For a more extensive view into this controversy, check out this IEBlog post and read the comments.