I try to be as cautious as any free software loving programmer when it comes to Microsoft, but it's hard to see how they could get away with that strategy in TypeScript's case. The code uses the Apache License 2.0 (FSF approved, OSI approved and compatible with GPL v3) and it's been on github for a year with lots of forks.
You don't need to depend on anything from Microsoft for development, I've toyed with TypeScript using Node.js and Eclipse on Linux without issues. And as stated before TypeScript compiles directly to Javascript and they are trying to align their syntax with ES6.
Seems quite kosher. I think at this point if Microsoft tried something shady a community fork is very doable, or if it doesn't happen you can always compile to plain JS and continue working there.
It's really different from the situation you describe because developers and users won't tolerate a MS JS that only works with MS browsers, they have to remain compatible with the others or risk irrelevance.
You don't need to depend on anything from Microsoft for development, I've toyed with TypeScript using Node.js and Eclipse on Linux without issues. And as stated before TypeScript compiles directly to Javascript and they are trying to align their syntax with ES6.
Seems quite kosher. I think at this point if Microsoft tried something shady a community fork is very doable, or if it doesn't happen you can always compile to plain JS and continue working there.
It's really different from the situation you describe because developers and users won't tolerate a MS JS that only works with MS browsers, they have to remain compatible with the others or risk irrelevance.