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Bill Gates Claims OSS Has Poor Interoperability

Posted by timothy on from the intrigued-by-ideas-desire-newsletter dept.

XeRXeS-TCN writes "In yet another example of Bill Gates seemingly 'not getting it' (or getting it just fine and spreading FUD), he has sent out an email to all MSFT's corporate customers, stating that if they are looking for interoperability, they should not look to Linux or OSS software. What he really means of course, is free alternatives trying to interoperate with Microsoft's non-documented proprietary standards."

3 of 565 comments (clear)

  1. No bias, right? by Vorgo · · Score: 0, Redundant

    [warning: dripping sarcasm. floor may be slippery]

    Cuz, if a competitor says so then it must be true.

    I'm sure Bill is saying this completely in the best interests of computer users.

    [/warning: dripping sarcasm. floor may be slippery]

    --
    A new feature is just a bug waiting to happen. And vice versa.
  2. The email. by kngthdn · · Score: 1, Redundant
    Heh, I just got that email this morning. Here it is, in case the article gets Slashdotted:

    Hello Everyone, And thank you for signing up for my Beta Email
    Tracking Application or (BETA) for short. My name is Bill Gates.
    Here at Microsoft we have just compiled an e-mail tracing program
    that tracks everyone to whom this message is forwarded to. It
    does this through an unique IP (Internet Protocol) address log
    book database.

    We felt that now would be a good time to alert you to the clear
    and ever present danger that so called "free" software poses to
    your company. You may have seen this software recently featured in
    in such devious publications as the New York Times and the Wall
    Street Journal.

    In fact, Open source is just a methodology for licensing and/or
    developing software - that may or may not be interoperable. Here
    at Microsoft, you can depend on all our software being interoperable.
    Except in cases of competing products, but, sheesh, you didn't want
    to use cheap not-interoperable software anyway.

    Additionally, the open source development approach encourages the
    creation of many permutations of the same type of software application,
    which could add implementation and testing overhead to interoperability
    efforts. When many people create the same product, you can't possibly
    expect the strongest to survive!! Where do the kids get these crazy ideas?

    Welcome to the real world, baby! This is Microsoft-land! Uh, anyway,
    did you know that their stupid Emacs program can't even cut and paste?!
    Screw that! I pressed Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V for hours. Idiot longhairs!!

    Remember, interoperability is more pragmatic than many other approaches,
    and helps you bring heterogeneous technologies together while reducing
    costs.

    Forward this to everyone you know and if it reaches 1000 CEOS,
    everyone on the list will receive $1000 and a beta copy of AntiSpyware
    at my expense.

    Enjoy.

    Note: Duplicate entries will not be counted. You will be notified
    by email with further instructions once this email has reached
    1000 people.

    Your friend,
    Bill Gates & The Microsoft Development Team.
  3. Re:What is this world coming to? by Aeiri · · Score: 0, Redundant

    An OS should be like a screw driver. It does its job and doesn't need to be redesigned every week.

    /me puts down his Quad Mega Super Ultra Magnetic Anti-Stripping Mechanism 5x1 Foot 9 D Battery Powered Laser Cannon Screwdriver.