Dan’l Lewin talked at LeWeb this week and whilst I thought Marissa Mayer from Google won the crowd over more, Dan’l had some interesting stuff to say. He talked about BizSpark of course which is an awesome offering if you’re a startup and want a tonne of nearly free ($100) software….more interesting to me was the chat about Ray Ozzie and the “new Microsoft” we’re seeing under his technical leadership.

As my pal Kris told me, the real fun at LeWeb is the cab rides you get to share. I travelled with Kara Swisher and Megan Smith on one trip and Michael Arrington on my next trip. I found them all fun company and all had a genuine interest in what’s going on at Microsoft. I suppose they would given their jobs but I also got the sense from them (and from several other big names I spoke with during the 2 days) that there is a sense of a new Microsoft emerging. I think we’re starting to see the Ozzie influence have an effect. He’s more web centric and more “outside in” with his approach and slowly but surely people are seeing the change.

Marc Cantor made me smile when he told the audience “this isn’t your grandfathers Microsoft” (go 20 mins in to the video above) and when Loren Feldman enthusiastically applauded Microsoft I was shocked (he may have been taking the pi$$ though…I couldn’t quite tell)

The supertanker is turning and whilst everyone is over there looking at the economy, Microsoft keeps turning. It’ll be interesting to see where we are when the climate changes.