[ Thanks to Ajay
S. for this link. ]
“Microsoft is virtually doing the unthinkable in India–it is
planning to share the Windows source code. Not with one and all, as
Linux does, but with a specific government body which, in turn,
will share it with others for the purposes of e-governance and
education.“Microsoft has already made a proposal to the ministry of
information technology for sharing the Windows source code with one
government body. The nature of the body has not been spelt out; it
will presumably be worked out after discussions between the company
and the government officials. Interestingly, the offer comes at a
time when state governments are showing interest in rival Linux
operating system as the latter’s source code is free and
downloadable from the internet.“When contacted by ET, Microsoft India president Rajiv Nair was
somewhat cagey. Although he didn’t deny the move, he merely said,
‘We are evaluating the idea (of sharing the source code).’ However,
sources in the company said that MS is already in talks with the
government to work out the modalities of sharing the source code.
It’s learnt that MS worldwide program manager for shared source
program, Jason Matusow, was recently in India to work out the
modalities…”