The always clear seeing Jon Udell has an article on the future of .NET server libraries and when servers will expose their functionality via managed code for ultimate extensibility.

This is the good old world where everybody just used the C libraries and good integration languages were available in source or at least in super integrable form.
Typically the C-library wrappers in the integration language (like mod_perl) define the 'managed code' layer.

The notion that server software is mainly a series of libraries that developers can then extend on is reminiscent of the war something like perl fits inside Apache.

Now if just Parrot can get some leverage and Postgresql, qmail and apache open their API's to Parrot we have the same thing only open and naturally reflective because of Perl/Python/Ruby power.

That said it is only further evidence that .NET really is an attempt to do something better than they ever did before even if the same kind of function has been available on Linux for years.