While Microsoft has debated which RSS icon to use in their upcoming versions of Internet Explorer, Office, and Vista, they’ve gone from designing their own, to now adopting Mozilla’s orange version. 

Knowing that whatever icon Microsoft chooses will end up being the standard, I can only applaud them for taking their largest competitor’s icon and adopting it.  However, you must take into account the gesture was not completely benevolent or selfless. 

The tech community would have mercilessly whined had they attempted to change the status quo here.  And as the evil empire monicker is quietly falling away, Microsoft wants to do nothing to discourage that trend. 

And, as you’ve seen, the Mozilla icon and link is almost an identifier of a site that is rebelliously "sticking it to the man."  Now, the Mozilla RSS buton is one less icon the anti-Microsoft crowd will have to boast about.  In fact, with the soon-to-be-widespread use of RSS, Microsoft couldn’t afford NOT to take Mozilla’s icon and use it themselves.