In the comments on Ryan's post, he asks:

"My next question, though... with all the talk, can you guys back up your decision to do the downlevel support."

Great question. Unfortunately I really can't answer, I mean realistically the decision was made far above my pay grade. I can talk about why I think we made the decision, but in the end this was a decision made by Jim Allchin, Steve Balmer, and Bill Gates. Seriously, they were involved in the final decision making process.

I believe that we made this decision primarily based on customer feedback. At the PDC and WinHEC we got consistent feedback from developers that they wanted Avalon downlevel. Of course, they also said they wanted Avalon to run on all platforms (including Altair), but we knew that they really just wanted Windows XP <G>! Seriously, feedback from developers was consistent - they wanted the developer platform to be available (in some form) on a broader range of operating systems.

As a stockholder, I have to ask the question - Why would you give away the developer platform?! As a stockholder I want MSFT to monetize every technology they can to increase revenue and drive shareholder value. Ah, but nothing is ever that simple.

Let me introduce a pet theory of mine - Developer value vs. Consumer value. Developer value drives developers to adopt some given platform for building their applications. These applications drive adoption by consumers for the value of the application - not the platform. Consumer value (of the platform) is driven by end user facing features. There are also IT administrator value, and tons of other value propositions, but for now lets talk about Dev and consumer.

Developers want the platforms they target to be available to the broadest set of consumers. Consumers want the platforms they use to run the boardest range of applications. Consumers also want the platforms they use to offer the richest experiences.

To me, having WinFX broadily available is all goodness for developers (whom I love). Having Longhorn focus on delivering amazing experiences is goodness for consumers (whom I also love).