vp8/xmpp/jingle are open standards with open implementations, and Safari is a Webkit browser with a pretty good track record. Whatever Apple's problems, it doesn't seem too uncomfortable with using stuff that is BSD licensed.
Nobody can force Microsoft to support open standards, without the leverage of popular adoption and demand. So it makes no sense to wait on Microsoft to support open standards before trying to use them.
So if browsers can't talk to each other, whose fault is that? If Microsoft decides to be the odd man out, it's Microsoft's fault. If everyone else allows open standards to be suppressed as they wait for Microsoft, then they will be responsible for a world where Microsoft controls everything. Is that really what you are looking for here?
Anyway, these days Microsoft has shifted more support away from things like Silverlight, so I think there is a good hope that things will not be just like the bad old days.
VP8 is BSD-licensed. It's not supported in Safari and Apple has said they have no plans to do so.
That's because this whole codec thing is about patent licensing, not copyright licensing, so the fact that the code is BSD-licensed for copyright purposes is irrelevant.
The result is that for the HTML video tag, for example, it's Apple and Microsoft that don't support VP8 and Theora, and Mozilla and Opera that don't support H.264, all for patent licensing, not copyright, reasons. The corresponding situation with WebRTC is still in flux.
Nobody can force Microsoft to support open standards, without the leverage of popular adoption and demand. So it makes no sense to wait on Microsoft to support open standards before trying to use them.
So if browsers can't talk to each other, whose fault is that? If Microsoft decides to be the odd man out, it's Microsoft's fault. If everyone else allows open standards to be suppressed as they wait for Microsoft, then they will be responsible for a world where Microsoft controls everything. Is that really what you are looking for here?
Anyway, these days Microsoft has shifted more support away from things like Silverlight, so I think there is a good hope that things will not be just like the bad old days.