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A Perspective on Microsoft's Shared Source

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the redmond-done-right dept.

Masa writes "ONLamp has an insightful article by Stephen R. Walli about Microsoft Shared Source Initiative and some thoughts, what it would really mean if Microsoft would open-source their operating system. The article gives a nice perspective on the Shared Source Initiative and what it is meant to be. It also shows that even if it might look that Microsoft doesn't understand the value of open source, there actually are some projects under the OSI-approved licenses, for example the WiX Toolset, which is a good example of a successful open source project by Microsoft."

5 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. what it would mean by pestario · · Score: 0, Troll

    what it would really mean if Microsoft would open-source their operating system

    it would be renamed to linux

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    :n
  2. If.. by Turn-X+Alphonse · · Score: 0, Troll

    If Windows became open source we would see £100 knock down on the price of every single PC. This would then make more people buy PCs, which would help the whole industry except Microsoft. It would encourage growth in hardware and softcore could follow suite nicely.

    But hey this is old Bill here, we all know Microsoft is the whole industry in his eyes (with a little brother called Intel). So hey he's not going to do this.

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    I like muppets.
    1. Re:If.. by DaHat · · Score: 1, Troll

      You are quoting just one definition of open source, there are many.

      Microsoft's Shared Source initiative is a form of open source, just not an OSI approved one... which at the end up the day means nothing.

      The definition you quoted is more that of the contemporary view of free (as in speech) software as it pretty well discounts BSD and MIT style licensed software.

      --
      Help Brendan pay off his student loans
  3. would mean that? by raynet11 · · Score: 0, Troll

    I would no longer have to boot into windows to run the latest viruses and crippleware?

  4. Re:MS DOES understand the value of open source by iamacat · · Score: 0, Troll

    Sadly, no. People would go to court to refund "Redhat tax" in droves and buy XP for $99.95. Current Linux distributions just don't cut it in software choices and ease of use for non-professionals. Someone with serious money would need to develop a good front end UI - open source or otherwise - first as Apple did for BSD. Is IBM still holding a grudge about stolen OS/2?