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What if Microsoft went Open Source?
An anonymous reader writes "This article on newsforge takes a speculative look at what would have to happen if Microsoft decided to jump on the Open Source bandwagon (using Microsoft Project as the source of speculation). Amusing to think about, unlikely to happen."
It's not happening, for obvious reasons. Companies exist to make money!
MS is doing just fine without being OS!
You never know, it might just eventually improve their products. Look at Netscape/Mozilla!
What if Microsoft went Open Source?... Pigs shall fly and people will ski in Hell
Slashdot comments would decrease by 50%?
I really think that's the stupidest thing I have ever heard.
-
-=o
Is that all. I thought the universe would collapse in on itself.
There is a reason why Microsoft doesn't go open source that a lot of people don't realize, or at least they don't think about it. Sure Microsoft made the code for the NT Kernel, Office, VS.NET, etc. So they can legally release all that code. But there are a lot of things within Windows and Office that Microsoft can't legally release the code for. Like the defragger that is made by some German company. A lot of device drivers written by hardware people also. Windows now technically also includes Sun Java, which they can't release the source for.
So while MS could open lots of source, there would be quite a few holes in it, and all the geeks who bothered to look would be wondering what was up with the swiss cheese.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
What if the sky were pink?
What if we lived in the year 3000?
What if Russia had not become a communist state?
What if the moon turns out to be the home of our overlord and master?
What if I became Pope?
All of these things have something in common. Can you spot what that is? Yes, they're all based on pure fantasy!
As stated, this won't happen. First reason, money. Second reason, control. Third reason, No one would use it once they got a look at the source.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
What if America was a real democracy and not run by oligarhic oportunists... ?
...
Unlikely... Impossible
It probably wouldn't accomplish a damn thing. MS has what, about 20 thousand employees? Not all of them are writing code. Probably 2/3's of them are advertising, management, marketing, legal ect. Compared to the millions of existing members of the open source community, another 6000 people would be a drop in the bucket. Probably the only thing they would have to offer is a boatload of cash.
I expect clocks would began running backwards shortly before the fabric of universe unraveled and everyone simultaneously imploded.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
bill gates will grow a beard and full head of hair like stallman...er, no, he'll get some pointers from esr.
I picture in my mind, many gleeful hackers and an overwhelming wave of new exploits, that might in fact cause more people to switch to Linux, where the support community is much more on top of things, and a reliable infrastructure is in place.
Just the fact that he calls South Africa, White Africa, proves he is a fucking dip shit. My country has been under black majority rule since 1994! Shut the fuck up, and go whack off to your Bill Gate's picture nimrod!
What if all of the trolls left slashdot in droves ?
What if editors stopped reposts ?
What if CmdrTaco choice disappeared from polls ?
What would happen if M$ went Open Source?
I'm pretty sure these would form in this place.
And Slashdot readers shall get laid.
"Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -- Dark Helmet
There are almost certainly pieces of (current) Windows code that can't be released under an open license. So the idea of the entire Windows code base being GPL'd will never happen. Even if earlier versions of Windows were "clean", they still wouldn't be released: older versions of MS software are the biggest threat to the newest versions. According to Google Zeitgeist, there are more people running "obsolete" Microsoft OSes (95, 98, NT) than "current" ones (2000, XP).
OTOH, Windows could follow Apple's lead, and use Linux or BSD as a starting point for their next-generation OS. The problem with that idea is that it doesn't really match MS's current goals of DRM, software leases, and increasing MS's revenues.
(I RTFA the day it was published.)
...is one of the US's biggest ally in this. Bulgaria has lost every war in the last 100 years.
Things aren't looking good!
What if America was a real democracy and not run by oligarhic oportunists... ?
...
Unlikely... Impossible
Are you just stupid? America isn't run by oligarhic oportunists, America is really and truly an Oligarchy, which means it is run by oligarchic opportunists... Jumping Jeebus! Learn to spell!
Not to mention it is not only run by oligarchs, but these oligarchs are also aristocrats. So we are an Aristocracy in addition to an Oligarchy.
Jumping Jeebus! Get the facts straight!
On a more serious note, MS could acutally open up, say, the Win XP kernel to the public. The kernel doesn't do the brunt of the OS work; it's kind of the foundation, not the building. That way, MS couldn't be acused of being monopoilistic, but they could be monopolistic in practice.
Also, maybe we could see some Win XP clones? For free? Of course that right there is why MS wouldn't open up a current version of Windows, but they could open up, say, Win 95. Of course, knowing hackers, there probably would be a free version of Windows out in 6 months, and MS would (eventually) be undercut by boxed versions of this "free Windows".
MS couldn't open up Windows. Even if developers couldn't _use_ the code from Windows, they could read it so they could create a free version of Windows in ~3 years. And then they'd undercut MS's price, and eventually MS would go out of business.
Of course this very scenario may happen with WINE + Linux. But, of course, this is going to take time. If MS opened up Windows, they would only speed the process.
And Bill doesn't want that, now does he?
If Microsoft DID actually "get it" and go opensource, dropping their strategy and opening up code and changed their development ideas...
would the OSS/FS community be able to handle that ?
and would anyone help them out ?
(assuming that, let's say it's released under GPL or BSD style licenses)
How many people read that and wished for MS to go OS? ;oP
What if the developers of MS project left Microsoft and started their own OpenProject, Inc? One of the things that keeps developers working for the company that makes the software they write is that they just can't take the code, walk out, and start their own company with it. But now it's GPL, so these developers have no reason to stick around if they think they can do better on their own. And now Microsoft is at a huge competitive disadvantage until they can get new developers up to speed.
As far as the idea that Microsoft could change it's business model, if Microsoft wanted to be in the business of a Project ASP, they would be there already. So sure, once they gave away their source of revenue, they'd have to find another, but why would you throw away your dinner then pick through the neighbor's trash to find something to eat?
Porgrammers perusing the IIS code will gouge out their eyes.
Doing the Right Thing should not be preempted by making a buck.
In the 70's and 80's we speculated that cars would use a clean energy source by the year 2000. But nobody realized that SUVs would become popular and get even worse gas milage.
The same thing will probably happen with Microsoft. A huge business like that does not change overnight. It is doubtful that we see any changes until it is too late. Proprietary businesses no matter how good will eventually lose out to 3rd parties. There is a window in businesses like IBM and Microsoft. When that time is up, they will get hit hard.
IBM at one time was completely proprietary. Piece by piece 3rd party manufacturers replaced IBM hardware. Eventually IBM clones were around and could compete with IBM directly. Over a span of less than 10 years IBM lost most if it's desktop market share. Now IBM doesn't even bother with consumer hardware. The last couple of things to go were videocards and hard drives. Companies like NVIDIA and ATI were innovators and blew by IBM in the videocard market. Then the IBM hard drives began to get chinsey and they discontinued that as well.
I am speculating that the same thing with Microsoft is going to occur. Right now there are competing office suites, desktop os', web browsers etc. These products will eventually replace the need for Microsoft products one by one as more people use them. In a matter of years more people will be using open/free software and look back to the days of Microsoft and either laugh or feel dread and angst. The days of a software proprietary model are limited and if Microsoft and other companies don't change to accept opensource, then they will ultimately lose their market shares.
I say we should all support Microsoft going Open Source, I'm getting pretty tense here!
And Microsoft continues to be the Evil Empire because they're undermining their competitors and being a monopoly, etc.
Coming soon - Slashdot stories bashing "M$" because of their "unfair" competition based on the strategy of releasing the source code to their products. That should be a fun "discussion".
Be careful of what you wish for - you just might get it.
Project has huge dependencies on Office but not vice versa. Typically Project team picks up office bits around 90 days after Office stabilizes.
All of the common code is in MSO9.dll, or MSO10.dll, whatever, as well as "external" dependencies like MSXML.dll or MDAC from Web Data, or Trident (MSHTML). I'm not going to claim that you can't GPL Project without releasing the rest (don't know enough), but I can tell you the codebases are very intertwined. Does GPL still make sense given this info?
Basically all Project is is a specialized Access database application. (BTW, did you know that Exchange storage engine and Microsoft Access are both based on Jet? Exchange == Jet Blue. Access == Jet Red. And DHCP and Crypto DBs are stored in
Well it would be the end of Microsoft since we'd all have a lawsuit against them. Then we would take the code and put it into Linux and make every Win32 program run at native speeds or faster.
It'll never be released.
the main reason is (and im strictly speculating) is embarrasment. Bill Gates says bug fixes arent a part of product development, the thing is probably riddled with so many bugs no sane compiler or even programmer would touch it (unpaid.)
If anyone got a decent look at it, they would probably scream, then turn to stone.
Microsoft Windows has a defragger? That's so cool! Now when I get blown up while playing Quake I can just alt-tab out, punch the defragger, and watch the shocked expression on my enemies' faces as my pieces fly back together! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Snarkiness is inversely proportional to wisdom because it emphasizes feeling right rather than being right.
The problem with MS is the license pricetag which are sending corporation after corporation running towards linux/MacOs. MS has "opened" it's source to governments and a few other organisations.
Forget going OSS with some minor application. Apple has allready proven you can go half OSS with an OS and not run into big problems. Microsoft, no matter what else you say about them employs some smart programmers. They could release a decent linux distribution of their own rewriting Microsoft Windows as a closed source window manager that you have the option to run within your X enviroment. Support could be such that the MS Window manager would be garenteed to interoperate with their setup but was a standard Window Manager so could optinally be run on top of any *nix system on the market. This would achieved the desired greater market penetration, as well al allow MS to dip their collective little toe into the OSS market while retaining total control over that intellectial property they prize above all else. It would also allow them to focus on the GUI and high level layers of computing systems rather than worrying about the underlying architecture, which they really have no stake in other than as investments in companies like Intel and AMD. Why bother continuing to write, maintain and update a kernel when you can retain the same market power while just writing a desktop manager/window manager combination product?
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
...all of which would be improvements over the original
The US won't lose the war with Iraq, but they (at least the current Administration) is sure losing the trust of a lot of people in the world, and other countries will probably be more wary about dealing with the US next time (it's like when you hear what Microsoft does to its "partner companies", you'd be wary about jumping in when they offer you some money as a "partner"), and as a result these countries might trade with other rich countries instead.
And I wonder if Bush had calculated what Turkey has done now, what might end up destabilizing the region as all war critis have feared.
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
The real cash-cow for Microsoft is Office, and it is certainly inconceivable that Office could go Open Source.
However, there are certain MS products (IIS, even the core OS) which could be at least partially opened up in order to capture some of the coding-for-free Open Source culture. But if you thought that Linus was picky with patch acceptance, imagine what Bill would be like.
However, it won't happen, since:
Please remain calm, there is no reason to pani... wait, where are you all going?
Microsoft Linux Distribution
A year ago people would have thought "M$" bought "Linux". But it still is a doable way and wouldn't be that late for them to do it.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
It wont happen, why waste brain power on 'what if'?
There are plenty of other things to think about.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I am not sure about how the closed-source software is checked for copyright infringement. Please enlighten us.
What if Microsoft Windows code has stuff stolen from other places. The closed source system that has so far protected it (if there are any stolen code at all) won't protect it anymore.
Of course they could simply delet those parts, but still just curious
Pardon my ignorance regarding closed-source source-code management. I do not mean to accuse Microsoft with stealing code. Just a scenario, since no one else sees the code, isn't it possible?
Thank you
GrimReality
2003-03-22 16:45:39 UTC (2003-03-22 11:45:39 EST)
Should MS talk about releasing the kernel, there would be generals and politicians in an uproar, and would be screaming 'No, no! National Security!"
It would take a lot of explaining to convince them that malignant hackers couldn't exploit a new hole and tunnel in to mess up a batallion's paychecks.
C'est pas apres qu'on a fait dans son pantalon qu'il faut serrer les fesses.
Think about it, if the cost of the OS is gone one of the main reasons to swich to linux (not the biggest, but at least one of the more easily noted) is gone. If the source is open, will be no more security by obscurity, a lot of eyes will detect and fix the hundreds of remaining critical bugs in the code, maybe even make Win95 as stable as XP or Linux, or make really safe XP. If Windows now have almost the entire market share on the desktop and not so in the server market, with this not only expand even more their dominance in the desktop, but will have the same dominance in the the server market, and more than this, the market will expand with free/open windows.
What about Microsoft? How it will generate revenues? With services, support, not so free apps (i.e. Office), having their specific distribution, using it as a plataform of selling their own services (passport?).
If they would go GPL then it is Free Software and I wouldn't have any problem with MS any more. There would be free compiting....
More nerd will be attracted to MS, less fun there will be
Hello, Bill? This is your old pal Satan -- what the earth is going on up there? It's frickin' freezing down here! Did you open up some code or something? .....
10b||~10b -- aah, what a question!
..so this guy listed 5 of the reasons open-source is bad and called it an article..hell..at least list them all:)
What if the U.S. loses? I happen to have a photo: G. W. Bush if the U.S. loses.
...would extract the one worthwhile feature of the chain of Windows OSes--backwards compatibility--and run with it. Imagine taking that compatability layer and combining it with any number of OSes with stronger functionality.
Arguably, at a high level, a Windows compatability layer is all other popular systems lack. Look at Virtual PC and WINE--in some sense, if these projects were respectively fast and stable, they would subsume a great number of open source projects.
Whether or not this would be a better world is up for debate.
AC comments get piped to
And Slashdot karma whores will be enslaved by The Beast(R).
I think Microsoft should integrate linux shell with Windows. Then, you would get the best of both worlds.
This is the kind of stories that happen when brewing a strong cup of tea to make an infinite improbability generator...
What, is that code not "forked" enough already?
In Soviet Russia, Chuck Norris will still kick your ass.
Microsoft Windows if the U.S. loses the war: MS Windows if the U.S. loses.
Wheres the incentive to buy the boxed product? MS Office isn't linux. Most people buy linux in a box instead of downloading it because, for first time users anyway, it is a lot easier to install and get started. There is also a lot of documentation (i.e. on paper) that comes with the boxed retail versions of linux. However, as I said before, Office isn't linux. It almost as easy to install a downloaded copy as it is to install the boxed copy. There won't be as much incentive for the end user to go and get the retail version, especially if they are simply casual Office users. Most people will only need to perform simple tasks on Word and Excel, and a simple download and install would allow them to do that without paying money. Of couse you're going to have lots of people who will still pay money, but the casual end user who really doesn't give a damn about whether its open source or not will simply download it.
Microsoft can strategically release some stuff as open source.
Later, Microsoft can claim that various open source projects are using Microsoft's precious intellectual property.
The price of freedom is eternal litigation.
With VS, you get the source for all of the MFC, ATL and C run-time libraries. The code is at least as good as any of the GPL'd code i've run across - and at least they know where to put their leading brackets (on the next line, not immediately after the "if")!!
-c
I have discovered a truly remarkable proof which this margin is too small to contain.
This was a joke, yes? Wasn't it?
NDBM
New York city if the U.S. loses. From a New Zealand anti-war protest.
Lets face it, Bill Gates would never give anything away unless it had some license attached to it.
Encarta has a serial number that you have to enter to use it and thats not even a great threat to Open Source.
If they ever made Windows Free Software (as defined by the FSF), then a huge part of Stallman's war will have been won, no matter if this was the way he visioned it or not.
This would be a huge, monumental win for Free Software, because the most visual basis of almost all desktop computers in the world would be free software.
Will it happen? No.
Superman had been a German?
Statue of Liberty if the U.S. loses. From a New Zealand anti-war protest.
Windows probably have lots of pieces of code that would have to be rewritten or obtain agreement from 3'rd parties.
The latter could be hard to get since those pieces might not be somethng you could build a OSS Service business around.
Help fight continental drift.
u know, that nerd thing about slashdot readers, and computer geeks is kind of weird.
:-)
My nick starts with G and ends with G, with alternating caps, i'm prety much a computer geek, almost to finish a Ph.D., expert linux user(own compiled kernel, latest cvs packages, webpage, know perl, fortran, little c, expert shell scripter, lkml suscriber)
and you know what !, I do get laid, and i happens all the weeks, most weeks more that 3 times !
I guess geek and nerd are IN with women in our times
What if beer were free?
What if George W. Bush became an environmentalist?
What if Slashdot started displaying journalistic professionalism?
What a bunch of crap..........
And Slashdot readers shall get laid. [...]
laid-off, from reading slashdot when they should be improving Sun Solaris!
[SWEATSHOP LOUDSPEEKER] HINDU#4931! FIRED!
[HUNDU#4931] 'buht, 'buht, Mitser MacNeeely?
[SWEATSHOP LOUDSPEEKER] YOU TWO, #4930 AND #4932! YOU WERE NEXT TO HIM, YOU GO WITH HIM! (*whip cracking*) THE BOAT LEAVES IN 20 MINUTES, GET MOVING! RAWHIDE!
2003-01-16 23:28:15 Could Microsoft Go Fully Open Source? (articles,microsoft) (rejected)
I'm sure that because of their government contracts that they are bound to silence when it comes to the code, much less making the whole project OS.
1. Go open source
2. Stop making money
3. ???
4. Profit!
blog & fiction: jd87
This + This = Open Source IE
Thought MS already had lots of open sores ?......
I think he meant not counting inflatable dolls.
Must be the first of april.
=)
Whatever it takes, my boy. Whatever it takes....
total plutonic reversal, thats bad. safty tip: dont cross the streams!
Bill would be wise to make a linux kernel based distro of Winders. Get all the Free/OSS/Linux apps, the stability and advanced features of the Linux kernel, and detract people from switching to Linux. I'd pay $80 to get directX on Linux.
I agree with many people that this is unlikely, I don't think M$ is agile enough to commit to such a change. But it could happen, and I would _not_ be surprised if it did happen...
As for open sourcing their office apps, this would be a definite change from their current strategy of obfuscating the document API so others couldn't clone it. But it seems that strategy to be failing, it's not unheard of for a business to CHANGE a FAILING strategy...
My Linux Command of the Day site : LCOD
Wouldn't that mean we would have all those hot windows chicks coming over too, or is this all about situational homosexuality I don't need it that bad heh.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
With MS making hackers obsolete and all, the source code would just sit there crying to its sad little self "Won't anybody compile me? Won't someone come and debug me? Pretty please?"
~Phillip
Gates: We're going open source!
Goon: Where did that bowl of petunias and sperm whale come from?
Can be open source but It not free software
if you see ms code they won't let you write free software
MS wouldn't open source their products. Instead, they'd do their own GNU/Linux distribution with some key changes. They'd integrate DRM into X along with some other "features" that make it more proprietary. Remember X is closable source (to coin a phrase) so they can indeed compromise one of the most important parts of Linux and make it their own. Remember, they don't want 10 instances of Office running on a single machine with 10 different users on X-terminals. X would clearly be the first thing they "fix". You'll get D3D or whatever they call their 3D API these days. Many stupid people will jump for joy because they can run their D3D games on Linux, meanwhile OpenGL would die off completely, leaving Linux with another proprietary standard that has no alternative. More things would happen, but I'll hold out for a job offer from them before I go on. This was just a very brief hint of a viable attack on their biggest competitor.
In the mean time, I suggest moving ASAP to completely free (as in GPLed freedom) software. Somone please coin a pleasing phrase for GPLed so people can hop on the bandwagon. For starters I'd like to see Mozilla ported to Fresco, along with GNome. Hell, merge GNome and KDE while doing it. If that's too complex, someone should do a GPL version of X, since the maintainers seem to be having issues lately (see recent
You asked, and now have been warned.
dangit CumTaco you SUCK we need a petition to oust Cum Taco out of slashdot editorship
People if Microsoft goes Open Source then I will run naked on the 5th street.
Then people will see what size is my willy
They would look at the sources and laugh to death :)
Mod parent FUNNY.
Laws are for people with no friends.
"TOTAL protonic reversal."
If Microsoft went Open Source, hundreds of thousands of people the wold over would suffer from heart attacks. So, Microsoft, let that be a warning to you!
Stick Men
Clicking back, then hitting refresh destroys the Fwd/back history.
Clicking refresh after getting server not found, still leaves a "Server not found" message in the titlebar.
Okay, I'm actually going to talk about the article:
In the 3. Someone will fork it. section:
"If the boxed price is low enough, the fork is unlikely to clone the proprietary features."
This is not at all true. Geeks will clone something for the sole reason of that it is not Open Source. Even if their version is identical to the proprietary one. The proprietary version will then be labeled as "evil". Project would fork to GNUProject, nothing would ever get actively contributed to MS Project, and it would likely deviate to the point of incompatibility (of the programs and extensions, not the file formats). Microsoft would essentially be giving their product away free, not becoming involved in the Open Source community and development.
Does anyone have examples pertaining to this line of thinking?
The masses are the crack whores of religion.
Suppose they DID open source project, or even office. They would probably NOT release a Linux version, but if anyone DID fork the source, one of the ways it might be forked is to develop a Linux version. The windows OS would remain closed source, and with free (both in freedom and beer) MS applications for windows what would happen to Linux?
Why should they go open source anyway? Do you expect Toyota to open source their car designs? Yeah, many slashdotters don't like MS, but I bet most are reading this using Windows. Where can we get the browser stats for /.?
Karma? Sorry, i don't believe in superstition. http://talk.thinkingmatters.org.nz
That is really hard to imagine when you try to remember what happened. Go waaay back to the days of the Altair "computer", where hobbyists and future geeks would order the computer by mail. Go to meetings and swap programs and ideas. Then came Paul Allen and Bill Gates and wrote basic for it. It was a biz project from the beginning, aimed at making money. Now there is nothing wrong with making money, we all making money. But to imagine Microsoft as Open Source is really hard when you see how they complained about people swapping their Basic as they did with all the software for that computer. Now _selling_ software for the Altair seemed like overkill and I guess it was but it seemed that their plan worked quite well but to me it doesn't seem like Microsoft is built around the open source mind set at all(gasp) :)
my sig
Microsoft will *have* to go Open Source or else die off completely. The difference is that by the time this happens, they will be an insignificant, ultra-downsized corporation with little industry clout. Granted, we're talking perhaps 5-15 years here, but the tide is quickly shifting against them--both among techies and now also in the corporate world. Even if the Open Source movement takes that long to overtake their marketshare, it will happen eventually. It has to, simply for the fact that slow and steady will win the race. Over time, all weaknesses of existing OSS will be fixed and all missing applications will be developed. How long that process will take is entirely up to us--and how many people make OSS development / consulting their full-time career.
I can't tell if that was meant as a slam or a wish.
Thousands of developers will die laughing.
Microsoft doesn't really depend on the closed code point. The Microsoft is no doubt a big software creator and improver. But what is theirs major asset is the sell & markting and of course the services. They probably will still be majors even with open code:
Their major asset: name & reputation for the big masses and big corporations willing to spend a lot of money to be free from the concern of software quality nad support.
They really are the biggest on Marketting new ideas and product and selling them really fast even when they are not yet ready. ( See amazon.com when they tried to copy this with seagway - and this toy is even cheaper than most stuff that MS sell).
------I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either.------
Dman - I knew I'd regret that quicky I had this morning... :S
Microsoft would not be Microsoft if it was open-source.
Here's a thought. Suppose MS decided to port the Win32 API from NT kernel over to BSD?
.Net for FreeBSD. They could do an Apple, and sell a proprietary GUI on a rock-solid OS core. Away go the complaints about security and reliability. Hell, they could make it more secure out-of-the-box than some Linux distros.
:-)
And maybe replace some of the above-the-kernel bits too: replace IIS with Apache, etc. ISTR reading somewhere that Windows' TCP/IP stack is based in large part on BSD code already. Ballmer is on record saying that Apache is superior to IIS, and Apache's market share speaks for itself.
MS already support
They could then claim to be an "Open Source vendor", whatever that means. They'd become the largest *nix vendor (by license volume) overnight. If they passed the right compliance tests, they could even call it Unix, as IBM has done with OS/390 (I know, no-one takes that very seriously outside of IBM, but it's technically true.)
They'd need an equivalent of MS WoW to run existing Win32 software: that might explain their recent purchase of Connectix. Since Connectix already has a native version for the BSD-based MacOS X, porting would be pretty straightforward. Maybe they've tried this already on the quiet before agreeing to buy.
They could also quit banging their faces into the ground, trying to migrate Hotmail from BSD to WinXP.
Sure, some people here on /. think that they are cool or 'in the know' by spelling Microsoft and Windows wrong. Everyone else knows they are just lame. But by getting so upset about it, you are putting yourself in the same category; you think you know something that no one else knows. Get over yourself. As one /. sig puts it, "you are not as cool as you think you are."
Open Source derp de derp. Derp de derpity derpy derp. Until one day, the Microsoft derpa derpa derpaderp. Derp de derp. Microsoft Open Source da teedily dumb.
From the creators of GNUDer, and Tum Ta Microsoft Tum Ta Too, Rob Malda is Da Derp Open Source Derp Da Microsoft Derpee Derpee Dumb. Rated PG-13.
Are you included?
nt
har har har ...
:-P
OSS is not as easy as it looks
Now just hold a minute here. Just because Bush feels like th king of the world, doesn't make him aristocratic. Not unless you count oil barons as real barons.
And finally realize what goto statements are doing
in windoze
The company is called Executive Software, and their product is called Diskeeper.
:-)
Diskeeper was developed by Craig Jensen, who is indeed a scientologist. I understand that his company is also run on scientology principles, whatever that might mean.
When Microsoft bundled a cut-down version of Diskeeper with Windows 2000, they ran into a dispute with the German govt, who had a long running battle with the scientologists. The government basically demanded to see the source code, for security reasons.
A compromise was proposed whereby Win2K would ship with a Diskeeper-free option. I never did hear how that turned out in the end. And many people might think it a bit naive imagining that Windows without Diskeeper code is somehow safer.
IMHO this debate helped nudge the German govt toward treating Free/OSS software as a matter of national strategic importance. So thank you, scientology.
Pigs flying: (see American Airlines.com)
Hell, Michigan (zipcode #48169) starts to freeze about November and through 'till March
Hellhole, Idaho is a zipcode I can't find-so no weather report from the Hellhole.
I think it was best said as "Yeahh, right, and like monkies might fly out my ass"
So, if Microsoft merely were to distribute the source along with every release, nothing much would happen, because by the time other people would have managed to put a distribution together, Microsoft would already have moved on to something else in most cases.
What would make a difference is if Microsoft opened the development process itself, that is their "SourceSafe" repository, at least for read-only access, and nightly builds. That way, other people could keep up. But that goes far beyond opening the source to Windows.
So, just making source available, even under BSD or LGPL doesn't make much of a difference. Open source is an on-going process, not just occasional availability of source code to a released product.
I wonder why people insist on using M$ Project? Fact is it doesnt do Beta Distribution based forecasting and Risk Analysis, you cant easily have tasks with customised properties, and it re-mangles everything when you try to. Its Resource Leveling is a joke.
If you really want to buy a proprietry PERT/CPM Application, Look at TurboProject Proffessional. It does the sums right, and costs a tiny fraction of MSProject. I suspect TurboProject's interface was designed by someone working in Operations Research, because the interface makes sensse and actually works.
I do a lot of OR, and have a lot of trouble explaining to Junior Managers that I don't want M$ Access^H^H^H^H^H^HProject projects. Everytime they send one I have to import it into TP and fix all the crazy things Projects 'algorithms' (sheesh!) have done to it.
the joke wasn't good enough to deserve the attention you've brought it, but i assure you, it was intentional.
-c
I have discovered a truly remarkable proof which this margin is too small to contain.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It's called humour, imbecile. Try to figure it out.
Jesus Christ, people. Humour doesn't _get_ any more obvious than this. Try to keep up, please. You're depressing me.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
dude, GENIUS! GENIUS! oh yeah fuck the trolls, hun! bye!
Ah, how close you are to realizing the true value of a word processor. If $50/hour phone calls is your idea of support, I've got all the hours you can need. Just remember the EULA, help is provided AS IS, just like all software. So close, yet so far.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Dude, what are you talking about? No one would want to mod the most popular software ever? If only windows were free you could give it all of thes modifications and more:
Oh yeah, when I'm finished porting all that free software goodness to Windows, I'll modify the human genome to eliminate war, famine, pestilence and death. My little brother will colonize Mercury in his spare time and there will be free drinks for everyone. Yeah, baby, yeah.
The jig is up for M$. Other software does what they do better. XP and w2k will soon be on the same legacy junk pile Windoze 98, NT are on now. The damb broke a few years back, what you see now is the rush to free software that will soon fill everything. Microsoft's code is so hindered by it's years of seclusion, it's not worth modernizing.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
ha ha. That was funny. All these Linux dweebs on here need to shut the hell up.
as if closed source software had fewer bugs and exploits than free software. Experience proves just the oposite.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
What if C A T, spelled dog.
Since they won't support it any more, isn't it only fair to the customers to release the source, so the community might attempt to support it? Can there be too many relevant-to-today top-secret algorithms in Win3.11 or Win95? Not likely (maybe the anti-Logitech stuff). But I'm sure there are parents or less-pc-inclined siblings still using it, and some people who would love to find out what makes Win95 [st]ick and FIX that sonofabitch.
This sig is part of your complete breakfast.
What if America was a real democracy and not run by oligarhic oportunists... ?
...
Unlikely... Impossible
"5"?
"Informative"?
In other words, the modders felt they really learnt something new from this post? The post contributed an original viewpoint, which has not been rehashed INT_MAX times since the last American election?
And if you agree so strongly with the poster's sentiment(I do, somewhat), don't you feel embarassed about the way he expresses it? How can you mod this off topic, heavy-handed rhetoric "5"?
Most blacks are trying to work their way out of poverty while being dragged back down by other blacks for "acting too white". This plays right into racists' hands...equating intelligence with skin colour...which is exactly what asshole groups like the Klan have been doing for a century or more.
Microsoft shouldn't go open source, but rather, Bill Gates should add some new members to his one-man-band to speed up development. take arklinux for example. they are only a few years old, and I am running on their 6th version (a.k.a. H2O 1.0.0). If ol' Billy Boy would stop being so stubborn, then the tech support would be better, developnemt would be faster, and a WHOLE LOT LESS BUGS! Now that i think of it, i just described open source, didn't I?
Details at www.opportunityservices.com.
(What do I mean Microsoft-approved?
Not long ago my business plan for an LLCS provider was circulated internally at Microsoft. Soon after, I received the following email from Randy Hinrichs, Manager of Microsoft Research's Learning Sciences and Technology Group:
"Frank, you are a good man. Have you thought about joining this team? Your only alternative, of course, is venture capital. But their usual models require getting rid of the 'originator' within the first eighteen months. With Netscape it took a little longer, but you get the idea.")
Portentously, Microsoft appears to be headed in the LLCS direction. Consider, for example, their updated mission statement: to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.
Or this remark by Jeff Raikes, Microsoft Group Vice-President of Productivity and Business Services:
"I want to grow the information worker business...For the growth we can achieve this decade, about one-third will be from continuing to grow and enhance Office, while two-thirds will come from creating new categories of application value and services to support information work."
Or the TV commercials with the line drawing overlaying the video, and the off-screen voice talking about Microsoft's passion for helping people realize their full potential.
So what will happen re: open source and LLCS?
I suspect MS will end up going the route of the providers of retail financial services. Namely, their differentiator will be the utility of their technology-enabled services, not the enabling technology. Return on money wins in financial services. Return on productivity time will win in LLCS. If open source underlies, a la Hotmail, fine. The LLCS-centered MSFT will be technology-agnostic. (Although not until they have to be. No sense killing off the cash cows prematurely.)
Beyond this, lots more can be said, so I will confine additional remarks to responses to questions or comments.
Enjoy,
Frank Ruscica
Founder :: Have Fun to Get Ready
The Opportunity Services Group
www.opportunityservices.com
Hey! I'm a Slashdot reader, and I get laid. Of course, I'm married, so it probably doesn't count...but I can make it up in the fact that I've got my non-techie wife laughing at anti-M$/DRM/etc. jokes.
How To Get Humans To Mars
MSIE is so unpolished that you can still get hit by simply visiting a web page. If you turn off scripting in MSIE, you can get rid of many vulnerabilities, but you also get rid of the only non-religious reason to run MSIE. In which case, you'd be far better off running Opera, Mozilla, or other top of the line browsers. MSIE lags far behind other browsers in function and ease of use. There'd be no point in Open Sourcing it unless Microsoft was planning to drop MSIE and hand maintenance over to devotees.
People are catching on to the fact that Microsoft is a marketing engine and not a software company. OS X has the software and is easiest for users, but even the linux distros are just as easy as Windows and are pretty much there with everything except games. Linux distros and OS X have all Windows versions beat, hands-down, on ease of maintenance.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
don't feed the trolls
Come on. Do you really want to see how bad a programmer billy is? It might make me start looking for another occupation, just to avoid the embarance being associated as a 'fellow' developer... Suicide rates would definately increase !
...I would fix that whole stupid select-the-whole word crap in IE. It wouldn't be quite so bad if it could take an educated guess. Try it with two html tags in contact & see what it does.
What if Microsoft went Open Source?
then, by definition:
Hell Will Have Already Frozen Over
We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is
whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling
is that it is not crazy enough.
-- Niels Bohr
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