Why Microsoft Wants Us to Get All Mixed Up

Quoting: Having made this partial rapprochement – so that Gutierrez can claim with a certain plausibility that Microsoft too is releasing loads of open source stuff – the company is now trying to effect a sleight of hand: since Microsoft is releasing open source, and open source companies often have proprietary offerings, ergo there is now no difference between the two, and we should just call it all “mixed source”.

Quoting: Indeed, Gutierrez's invocation of them [companies selling proprietary versions of open code] shows that they represent a subtle danger to real free software: not so much for what they are doing or might do, as for the succour it gives to Microsoft's attempts to play down the core strength of open source – putting users in the driving seat – compared to its [Microsoft's] own model of unbending, centralised control.

Microsoft's Mafia-like obsession with enforcing “control” and demanding “respect” is reflected in a later statement from Gutierrez in the same interview – well, more of a threat, actually:

"If every effort to license proves not to be fruitful, ultimately we have a responsibility to customers that have licenses and to our shareholders to ensure our intellectual property is respected," he said.