[ Thanks to Thomas
Pfau for this link. ]
“News bubbled up from various media outlets late Thursday that
Microsoft (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates is willing to open the Windows
source code to competitors if doing so would bring an end to the
Justice Department’s antitrust case against the company.”
“Does this mean there’s new work for the hackers plugging away
at the Linux codebase? Hardly, because Linux’s definition of
“open source” is probably not what Gates is talking about. No one
owns Linux, and any work done on it becomes public
property.“
“What Gates likely has in mind is letting competitors read and
make suggestions about Windows program instructions. That way,
third-party applications would be more stable and sophisticated and
Microsoft would enjoy no special advantage in writing programs of
its own. This would be no small feat, but it’s not the same as open
source.”