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Will open source accept Microsoft leadership?
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Comments (18)
Who is Open Source?
As our friends the Bulgarians say, what cannot be bought with money, can be bought with more money.
Kidding aside, you speak the truth. Microsoft: "Propping up a gigantic crapware empire" since 1982. I just love it when the corporate types defend the MSFT "choice" by saying that's it's more flexible or more reliable, or cheaper to use than anything else. That always provokes the worst feeling of cognitive dissonance in me, as I have a Slackware server that literally *never* goes down unless my residential power fails. And it costs me *nothing* except my time, which is minimal, and I'm not ever a professionaly system administrator.
I expect that trying to be an "open source leader" will provide many others the same sort of feelings of cognitive dissonance. At least I hope so.
Kidding aside, you speak the truth. Microsoft: "Propping up a gigantic crapware empire" since 1982. I just love it when the corporate types defend the MSFT "choice" by saying that's it's more flexible or more reliable, or cheaper to use than anything else. That always provokes the worst feeling of cognitive dissonance in me, as I have a Slackware server that literally *never* goes down unless my residential power fails. And it costs me *nothing* except my time, which is minimal, and I'm not ever a professionaly system administrator.
I expect that trying to be an "open source leader" will provide many others the same sort of feelings of cognitive dissonance. At least I hope so.
Microsoft always has been and, for the foreseeable future always will be a monopolistic company interested in only one thing: extracting the maximum of profits for its closed source, proprietary software products. An "outstretched hand of friendship" from Microsoft has me taking only one action: looking with extreme suspicion for the knife hidden in the other hand because the company's past actions tell me only too well that Microsoft looks on Linux and FOSS as the biggest threats of all to its dominance of world computing.
The first question to be asked aways is: What does Microsoft stand to gain ? And given the stated/shared attitudes of Gates and Ballmer that Linux, FOSS and the GPL can be equated with "cancer", it couldn't be collaboration and cooperation could it ? The Windows operating system remains totally flawed in that it is a security nightmare. It was designed from the foundations upward as a single user, stand alone system ~ and nothing can change that except a total re-write of the code on different principles. Each release of Windows says the same thing: better, faster, more secure........and each time the malware hits, sometimes before the final release candidate is out the doors.
Nope.......any moves like this only tell me that Microsoft is now getting more and more concerned at the steadily increasing uptake of Linux everywhere. Even the desktop is being threatened and that is Microsoft's last "stronghold".
When Microsoft openly embraces the GPL is when I will finally believe that the leopard can change his spots. But I am not holding my breath: something about a very warm place freezing over comes to mind.
The first question to be asked aways is: What does Microsoft stand to gain ? And given the stated/shared attitudes of Gates and Ballmer that Linux, FOSS and the GPL can be equated with "cancer", it couldn't be collaboration and cooperation could it ? The Windows operating system remains totally flawed in that it is a security nightmare. It was designed from the foundations upward as a single user, stand alone system ~ and nothing can change that except a total re-write of the code on different principles. Each release of Windows says the same thing: better, faster, more secure........and each time the malware hits, sometimes before the final release candidate is out the doors.
Nope.......any moves like this only tell me that Microsoft is now getting more and more concerned at the steadily increasing uptake of Linux everywhere. Even the desktop is being threatened and that is Microsoft's last "stronghold".
When Microsoft openly embraces the GPL is when I will finally believe that the leopard can change his spots. But I am not holding my breath: something about a very warm place freezing over comes to mind.
I'm Spartacus!
....woops, sorry, wrong thread.
....woops, sorry, wrong thread.
No..I'm Spartacus!
Quoting:I'm Spartacus!
Quoting:No..I'm Spartacus!You know what that means? We have two volunteers to be billboards on the Highway of Death.
> We have two volunteers
Yep, nailed me with that one.
(does it stray into the religion category of off-topic to make crucifiction references? Or am I being a stick in the mud?)
Yep, nailed me with that one.
(does it stray into the religion category of off-topic to make crucifiction references? Or am I being a stick in the mud?)
dunno about off topic or religion, but for that pun alone I'm all for bringing crucifiction back. will some one please pass the febreeze?
BTW, while completely off-topic, I whole heartedly recommend to anyone interested in film to get the Criterion DVD of Kirk Douglas' _Spartacus_, I got it through Netflix, and listen to the audio "commentary track".
A movie that somehow survived with 6 prima-donna super actors.
Can you imagine Eric Raymond, Richard Stallman and Theo de Raadt working on the same software together? Naaa, I'm just reaching for SOMETHING related to F/OSS.
A movie that somehow survived with 6 prima-donna super actors.
Can you imagine Eric Raymond, Richard Stallman and Theo de Raadt working on the same software together? Naaa, I'm just reaching for SOMETHING related to F/OSS.
> A movie that somehow survived with 6 prima-donna super actors.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054331/
Director: Stanley Kubrick
I think that says it all.
Hmm. IMDB is apparently "An Amazon.com company.", so it probably runs on FOSS.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054331/
Director: Stanley Kubrick
I think that says it all.
Hmm. IMDB is apparently "An Amazon.com company.", so it probably runs on FOSS.
Quoting:IMDB is apparently "An Amazon.com company.", so it probably runs on FOSS.Except for that 1-click thingy. Nobody else is allowed to use that. Or even implement it.
> Nobody else is allowed to use that. Or even implement it.
Not even sure we can TALK about it.
Woops, too close to the copyright/patent thing. Oooo, that there is a slippery slope. Gotta get me some crampons...then do Riverdance!
Not even sure we can TALK about it.
Woops, too close to the copyright/patent thing. Oooo, that there is a slippery slope. Gotta get me some crampons...then do Riverdance!
I'm told that the big mass slave-rally scene at the end has at least one "Roman Slave" running around wearing a wristwatch.
I've never seen it all the way through, so I can't testify to that.
But to bring it back full-circle: Stanley Kubrick used Open Source. There, I said it.
I've never seen it all the way through, so I can't testify to that.
But to bring it back full-circle: Stanley Kubrick used Open Source. There, I said it.
Microsoft's reaches farther than you might think
I don't know how widespread this sort of thing is, but the Denver, Colorado Open Source User Group is sponsored by Microsoft, more or less:
http://www.denveropensource.org/
Check it out. I might have to go to a meeting to see what goes on.
This is opposed to the Colorado Linux Users and Enthusiasts, that scrapes by on user contributions.
http://www.denveropensource.org/
Check it out. I might have to go to a meeting to see what goes on.
This is opposed to the Colorado Linux Users and Enthusiasts, that scrapes by on user contributions.
Quoting:Microsoft's reaches farther than you might thinkFrom Washington State, to California, to Colorado, certainly all the way to Wall Street, and even across continental Europe.
One may wonder if Microsoft will keep Brad Smith away from the Open Source Business Conference in California, or else perhaps somehow sneak him in?? After all, Smith did tout Microsoft's "supposed" support for Open Source in the Cloud at the Museum of Art and History, in Brussels, last month. See 'Brad Smith on the Cloud in the 21st century' at http://geekswithblogs.net/iupdateable/archive/2010/02/10/bra...
OTOH, if an executive as high up as Smith does indeed appear, it could possibly indicate not only a Microsoft "charm offensive", but also a keen desire by top-level Microsoft strategists to probe F/OSS initiatives for candidates that can best be subject to its infamous Extend and Extinguish tactics (see http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-100925.html among other fine pieces on this.)
Or maybe some form of a "strategic" business pact such as the infamous one made less than three-and-a-half years ago; 'Microsoft makes Linux pact with Novell', http://news.cnet.com/Microsoft-makes-Linux-pact-with-Novell/... ????
@phsolide:
DOS-UG? I was at a RMOUG (Rockey Mountain Oracle User Group) meeting more than 10 years ago and there was a Microsoft rep there and I just got a creepy vibe that he was lurking, no doubt reporting to higher ups.
DOS-UG? I was at a RMOUG (Rockey Mountain Oracle User Group) meeting more than 10 years ago and there was a Microsoft rep there and I just got a creepy vibe that he was lurking, no doubt reporting to higher ups.
I don't know much about the DOSUG. I just found out about them. The meeting place is a long way from downtown Denver, where I work, so I will find it difficult to make a meeting.
Using "charm offensive" and "Microsoft" in the same sentence made me laugh and spew coffee.
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The one and only way to be a leader in open source is to actually do open source. But Microsoft and all their dependents don't want to. They don't understand it, and don't want to understand it because their focus is entirely on propping up the status quo. Even though the props keep getting bigger, more expensive, and harder to maintain. All they know is the carrot and stick. The carrot is mass quantities of money, and the stick is being crushed by the Borg. Money opens all kinds of doors, and buys them all kinds of "friends." But it will never make them any kind of open source leader. I'm puzzled why they even want to be thought of as an open source leader.