Using open source as a marketing ploy

This morning News.com is running an article (Taking the plunge into open source) on how proprietary software companies are leveraging (bastardizing?) open source practices for some of their new products. A big part of the profile is on a company called Aras, which is releasing its application open source and shifting to an OSS business model. I guess the interesting part is that the code is all written in Microsoft technologies, because the rest of the story is a stretch to be exciting in any way. These are probably the nicest, most well-intentioned guys on Earth so I don't want to wrongfully admonish, but...

Using open source as a marketing ploy.