Here are some possible turning points:
- The US government succeeds in anti-trust action against MS. Certain other world governments take action of their own.
You realize that case was a long time ago and a lot of the behavior I was discussing happened after that.
- Several strong competitors emerge who dominate in related areas of phones, tablets, cloud, search, social media, etc. Which leads us to:
- The market changes where the dominance in desktop OS is no longer the dominant factor in computing
I'll admit, that's reason for them to do something desperate. Having competition again does not imply Microsoft has become trustworthy.
- New leadership takes the reins at MS
... for the second time.
- MS begins to open-source their software, not because they suddenly received a vision from the Prophet Richard Stallman, but because they recognize that the old model of "embrace and extend" simply doesn't work anymore.
You are assuming a reason and an intent. That is where I am lead to believe differently than you.
If that's not enough, what is?
Microsoft spent decades working hard to earn the reputation they have. And I have to accent that. They earned their reputation. For a start, how about one decade of reasonable decent behavior without dirty secrets of back stabling coming to light in that time. Maybe one decade for 3+ is too much to ask?