Microsoft endorses Windows Phone 7 jailbreak attempt

Famed hacker Geohot has turned his attentions to Windows Phone 7, and has started work on a jailbreak for devices that carry the operating system. Of course, there's nothing particularly surprising about that, after all, he's already got a long history of cracking iOS. What is a shock, though, is that Microsoft is offering him a handset to do it on.

Brandon Watson, part of the WP7 development team has tweeted, after hearing about Geohot's attempt: "#geohot if you want to build cool stuff on #wp7, send me email and the team will give you a phone - let dev creativity flourish #wp7dev". Can you imagine Apple doing that?

And it's not the first time the team at Redmond has been supportive of hackers' attempts to unlock the system. As reported on Engadget, the ChevronWP7 guys who brought the world the first jailbreak of WP7 have already had a sit down meeting with Watson, and now sport a T-shirt that states, "I was the first to jailbreak Windows Phone 7, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt".

Certainly Microsoft's approach to embrace the community rather than sue its ass off is a welcome one. Can't see it spreading, though.

Do you think it's right that Microsoft is endorsing the jailbreaking of its system? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below...