Imagine the uproar if Microsoft changed the legal agreement of Windows to say:

Programs from Apple (of Cupertino, CA) may not be installed or run by any means within this operating system by any means, including, but not limited to virtual machines and web browser plug-ins. By running or installing these applications, your license to use this copy of Windows is immediately void.

Or if they changed it to:

An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any
means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded or used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Documented APIs and built-in interpreter(s).

(license quoted from here, taken verbatim from Apple’s updated iPhone Developer Program License)

Imagine how an entire industry would have changed (and the impact if Visual Basic, .NET, etc. were never created as those violated these basic terms — even MFC would have been included.)

Microsoft has made some giant mistakes over the years. But they’ve always put developers at the front and center. Thank you for that Microsoft and keep doing it.