<p>I don't see what all this fuss is about Microsoft's decision to support JQuery within ASP.NET MVC.</p>

<p>There were signs that open-minded people are starting to have some say in the matters of marketing for a while now. And even the way MS does business has started to change. But at it's core it's still acting in response to customers' requests.</p>

<p>I for one don't know what to make of it, except that it brings back to Microsoft's sphere of influence a very visible product.</p>

Its the first time MS is shipping an open source component
they didn't write
with one of their products.  This doesn't seem like a big deal, but its almost nuclear in its implications.
Think about it... They are saying "we support this."  In an OSS product, MS has no control over the code.  So, they are putting their livelihood (in some small way) into the hands of people who don't work for MS.
I think jQuery's popularity, the fact that it's not mission critical code, and that the codebase is so small all came together to make for favorable circumstances for MS to dip their toe in the water.