Why Microsoft Cozied up to Open Source at OSCON 325
This year at OSCON it seemed that you couldn't throw a stone without hitting someone from Microsoft (and in fact, I'm sure several people did). They were working very hard to make themselves known, and working desperately to change public opinion of Microsoft's involvement in the open source community. Linux.com's Nathan Willis took a look at what they were preaching, with a hefty dose of skepticism, and tries to postulate what the "angle" is. Of course, the powers that be at Microsoft may have finally seen the writing on the wall and felt the pressure from Google enough to alter their strategy a bit. For now I guess we'll have to wait with guarded optimism (or laughable contempt, depending on how old/jaded you are).
MS cannot be trusted (Score:5, Informative)
--Steve Balmer
yeah right... (Score:5, Informative)
working desperately to change public opinion of Microsoft's involvement in the open source community
After years of calling it "open sores" and saying open source is a "cancer", I'd say they have their work cut out for them.
Do they really wonder why open source people don't trust them?
Re:Google? (Score:4, Informative)
http://code.google.com/hosting/projects.html [google.com]
Riiiight.
Re:All together now: (Score:5, Informative)
Embrace, Extend....
No doubt that approach remains dominant, but it's too simplistic. The article seems to conclude that Microsoft is after hearts and minds, developers, specifically, but anyone else within earshot would help just the same.
That would make the latest developments more akin to Walmart's "our valued associates" commercials, oil companies touting "green" initiatives, US car makers promising economic turnarounds with concept cars, or, if you're so inclined, presidential political political strategies that ranged from compassionate conservatism, to "restoring honor", to the latest "I'm Different (honest!)" by McCain.
Re:MS cannot be trusted (Score:1, Informative)
Re:All together now: (Score:3, Informative)
I think you mean PDF (Score:5, Informative)
*IF* MS wanted to be open source friendly, things like OOXML would just vanish
So, to be friendly to open source, they should get rid of the only open document format that can handle billions of legacy documents without losing fidelity???
Grandparent said OOXML not PDF.
Re:MS Open Source is a Web Fallback (Score:5, Informative)
that goes against google's core principle of hoarding as much data as possible
Google sells a server you can drop in to index your internal corporate network, dropping in a similar apps server doesn't seem any different from a 'data hoarding' perspective.
Re:All together now: (Score:3, Informative)
No doubt that approach remains dominant, but it's too simplistic. The article seems to conclude that Microsoft is after hearts and minds, developers, specifically, but anyone else within earshot would help just the same. That would make the latest developments more akin to Walmart's "our valued associates" commercials, oil companies touting "green" initiatives, US car makers promising economic turnarounds with concept cars, or, if you're so inclined, presidential political political strategies that ranged from compassionate conservatism, to "restoring honor", to the latest "I'm Different (honest!)" by McCain.
Right. That's step 1, "Embrace". I'm interested to see what "Extend" is in this context. Possibly a new open source license? They've made steps down that road, but not seriously.
You mean other than these [microsoft.com]?
Re:yeah right... (Score:1, Informative)
I thought it should not be hard to find a quote of Richard Stallman that condemns everyone writing proprietary software. And it was quite easy:
Writing non-free software is not an ethically legitimate activity, so if people who do this run into trouble, that's good! All businesses based on non-free software ought to fail, and the sooner the better.
Doesn't sound that friendly either. It was in the "Attributed" section of Wikiquote, but I think it resembles the truth more than this 640k memory joke.
As a bonus question: has Richard Stallman ever denoted software as free that was not licensed with GPL?
Re:MS cannot be trusted (Score:2, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer#Free_and_open_source_software [wikipedia.org]
Next time you want to respond, please do so rationally rather than accusing me of doing something like making excuses for idiots.
I think Ballmer is an idiot too, but I was just trying to add to discussion.