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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."
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.)
... and that is why Sun did not provide the source for Star Office, where the spell checker and thesaurus, among others, are licensed from third parties.
(If this is too obscure, check openoffice.org.)
I believe the defragger is made by Diskkeeper (as of Win2k snyesyd). I remember that the German govt had issues with Diskkeeper as the CEO was a Scientologist or something like that
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
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)
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.
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.
Ever hear of Red Hat?
Maybe this works for a product that only costs $15 to buy. Maybe for half a grand all but the dial-up users and mentally challenged will wait for a server or buy download bandwidth instead. Maybe instead of giving me Office as a gift you can make a small down payment on my next car. Maybe a business plan based around the mentally challenged is not popular with stock investors. Maybe impulse buying a $500 product is the reason there is a 7 day waiting period to get a handgun in this state. Maybe you actually needed someone to tell you this.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Windows, Mac, Unix. I count three.
dominionrd.blogspot.com - Restaurants on
Have you seen all those "... For Dummies" books. Assuming the supplied manuals were at a similar level then yes novice users would buy a product for the manuals.
However. The money is really in the corprate market who I doubt would buy for mnuals. On the other hand companies buy support contracts. That is how MS would make money out of Open Source.