“Microsoft recently announced that it is taking an interest in
the open-source movement. At issue is whether it should release the
source code to Windows. This is a predictable move by Microsoft and
isn’t worth much interest on your part.”
“What makes the open-source-code concept work? First, those who
publish their works aren’t trying to make money. They simply want
to give back to the community. Second, the community is small, and
centered on universities and research centers. The high quality of
the utilities is maintained because only a few relatively good
programmers attempt to understand and extend the source code.”
“Linux represents a departure of sorts from the GNU model. Linux
kernel releases go through and are controlled by Linus Torvalds
(see www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html). Torvalds represents an
all-powerful release coordinator who shepherds the maturation of
Linux through the efforts of programmers around the world. Others
shepherd other pieces of the total Linux release, essentially
ensuring the quality of each release. This model has resulted in
what can only be described as an amazingly mature product with a
feature set that most operating systems have taken years to develop
(or, in some cases, have yet to develop.)”
“Now Microsoft says it is considering putting the source code to
Windows in the public domain. Microsoft has long had a policy of
“embracing and extending” competing standards, which is
Microsoft-speak for “diluting and trivializing.” To be fair, in
some cases Microsoft has done this to the benefit of itself and the
industry (for example, embracing and only marginally extending
TCP/IP). But there are cases in which Microsoft has tried to
embrace a technology to death; Java comes to mind. And Microsoft’s
current noise regarding open source should be seen as just that:
noise.”