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What if Microsoft went Open Source?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the something-to-talk-about dept.

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."

5 of 370 comments (clear)

  1. Can't and won't by travail_jgd · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.)

  2. Re:A reason by rikkards · · Score: 4, Informative

    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

  3. No good, Project has a dependency on MSO.dll by Saint+Stephen · · Score: 5, Informative



    Project has huge dependencies on Office but not vice versa. Typically Project team picks up office bits around 90 days after Office stabilizes. .MSP files are Jet databases (Access). There is always a new version of Project released based on the current Office codebase.

    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 .EDB files, which shares Jet ancestry.) Funny, huh?

  4. Visual Studio by Smallest · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
  5. As much as I despise Microsoft by GauteL · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.