Advanced

What If Windows Went Open Source?

Posted by gsh on · 15 comments
OSWeekly.com; By Matt Hartley 		Mail this story
Print this story

Recently, there have been more and more indications that Microsoft has shown a growing interest with the concept of open source software. Still not yet wanting to give up any kind of control over development, they started off slowly with the release of their open source tool set known as WiX.

Now I do realize this is hardly considered to be anything groundbreaking with regard to the software company's closed source nature. Regardless, there are those among us that did feel like they might be rethinking part of their old position.

Full Story

  Nav
» Read more about: Story Type: Editorial; Groups: Microsoft

» Get new stories by e-mail: nightly or as they are published

« Return to the newswire homepage

  Related stories
» More like this

Comments (15)

If Windows went open source....

cjcox ·
I'd have to buy more durable screens and windows (unintential pun) so that the pigs wouldn't crash through into my house!

NoDough ·
>Please understand. I would never use a Microsoft produced Linux distribution myself. However, I would be very happy to reap the benefits of them getting involved any day of the week. My reasoning is simple - Linux is an operating system, a tool if you like. So rather than treating this as a belief system, maybe all of us need to start looking at this for what it is - a tool to get tasks done.<

The author completely misses the point. Access to the source code is only a small part of the strength of FLOSS. Its real value comes from the license, which is the one thing that Microsoft will never give up control of.
jimf ·
cjcox,

Copyright 'screens' right now. Otherwise I bet it will be the name of the new MS AV ;-)...
Libervis ·
Indeed NoDough.

The real biggest strenght, benefit and difference of GNU/Linux as compared to Windows is not in the technical architecture of the it as an operating system, but the license and the freedom that it offers.

And that cause is apparently larger than this one Free OS itself. The real battle here is not between Windows and GNU/Linux, but between proprietary software and Free Software. GNU/Linux and Windows just happen to be the sort of flag bearers of the two.

...we would die laughing

tuxchick2 ·
The real reasons they'll never open Windows:

1. way too much misappropriated code 2. way too much really really really bad code

Want a little red wine with that spaghetti?
dcparris ·
Well, I have always said that I would wait for the Debian folks to get hold of it and release a stable branch. I guess that means I won't be using Windows anytime soon. ;-)
cjcox ·
Debian Windows will come out before Windows goes open source.
dinotrac ·
You guys ---

You are SO UNFAIR!!!!

I'll have you know, that Microsoft has already released every non-humiliating line of code in Windows.

As of yet, they don't need an ftp site.

Day could come, though.
dcparris ·
I take it there's no need for mirrors either. What is it, 65k?
jimf ·
> I'll have you know, that Microsoft has already released every non-humiliating line of code in Windows.

You mean all the BSD?
dinotrac ·
jimf -

Nah...the BSD code is pretty humiliating -- to Microsoft.

So far, their repository has a file a with a copyright notice in it....









jimf ·
> the BSD code is pretty humiliating

I know dino, I know :)
dcparris ·
> So far, their repository has a file a with a copyright notice in it....

Well, I guess that makes the file much, much bigger. ;-)
NoDough ·
>Debian Windows will come out before Windows goes open source.<

http://www.reactos.org/
dcparris ·
Yeah. See my editorial comment on the ReactOS story. ;-)

Post a comment

A free account is needed to post. Write your comment here first: your text is kept in this browser while you sign up or log in, and is waiting for you when you come back.

Your message:
|||||
10
Markdown: **bold**, *italic*, [text](https://link), - lists, > quotes, $x^2$ for math. Formatting help

Sign up and post (it is free)  or  Log in and post