over Gates & Ballmer's dead bodies
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| tuxchick Dec 28, 2004 9:02 AM EDT |
I don't see Microsoft opening the code of anything. Oh, maybe something minor and unimportant like Notepad. But they don't dare open up Windows, because first of all it will expose to the world just how shoddy and tangled the code is, and secondly it will expose all the stolen code they have thieved from F/OSS and from other sources. Plus they have drawn a very strong anti-F/OSS line in the sand. (Except of course they love BSD and BSD-type licenses, which allow them to take without giving anything back.) There is more than business strategy operating here- there is pathology. These guys are robber barons, and nothing is going to change until a new generation leads the company. |
| cjcox Dec 28, 2004 9:27 AM EDT |
I think your 1st premise is why a lot of folks don't want to open up their source code. Not sure about the 2nd reason though... I doubt there's that much going on (but perhaps some). Consider (for example) Nvidia and ATI's drivers... esp. Nvidia where they use a common code base for Linux and Windows now. One could hazard a guess that if their code were exposed that their primary competitor, ATI, might exploit a weakness found there. Not saying that it would happen, but Nvidia may fear this. To the Nvidia's of the world, I'd say, take an honest look at your dirty laundry first, see if you can clean it up... then put it out for show. Even if Nvidia doesn't do this, I'm grateful for the effort they've done so far in support of Linux.... even if they're sometimes hated for it. Finally, I sort of agree about Microsoft. Microsoft is NOT interested in helping the technology community, they are only focused on revenue production. Helping others is the last thing on their agenda (unless profitable$$$$$$$$ to do so). |
| PaulFerris Dec 28, 2004 11:36 AM EDT |
Hey, don't forget that pride and inertia are overtly against all of this. Microsoft has gone to great lengths to attempt to discredit the GPL, cast FUD in the direction of free software in general, to claim that obscurity and security are one and the same. Doing something in the other direction now would lead many people to doubt their "leadership" in the industry. It's kind of funny from another perspective -- now, more than ever, they really, really need the leverage of internet-connected communities, the security level of something like Apache (they're defining the opposite end of the spectrum there at the moment) and the glow of gaining market-share (not losing it, like they're obviously doing with I.E.). --FeriCyde |
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