“So is ‘Microsoft Shared Source’ a failed attempt at Open
Source? Not really. In fact it is a demonstration of how far
Microsoft are from grasping the entire concept of Open Source. IBM
were providing source code in the 1960’s under similar terms. VMS
source code was available under limited licenses to customers from
the beginning. Microsoft are catching up with 1960.”
“The very language they use to describe ‘Shared Source’ misses
the point of Free Software. To them ‘Shared Source’ remains about
control and about ‘owning code’. Free Software is about generating
revenue from doing work the customer wants and will pay for. It
recognizes that much of the software world is now commodity and
that proprietary software with all its overheads is in fact not a
sustainable business for commodity products.”