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Microsoft Wants Sit-Down With OSS Advocates
bonch writes "Microsoft is reaching out to the OSS community and wanting a sit-down to discuss how to better to interoperate with them. At a conference sponsored by the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) in Cambridge, Md., Microsoft's Brad Smith extended an olive branch to its competitors, including the OSS community. 'We're going to have to figure out how to build some bridges between the various parts of our industry,' he said. Eric Raymond responds, saying the first steps Microsoft could do are to open their file formats and support open standards."
didn't he have strategy where he got everybody into one room, then barred the doors and... :)
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
They just want to get all the OSS leaders together in one room, then.....
(oh wait, that was Dr. Who this week. Never mind....)
Don't fall for it!
In a related headline,
Lucy promises to hold football with finger, Charlie Brown to kick.
ITS A TRAP!
Maybe, Just maybe, Microsoft and Linux fans can sit down at the same table and talk about the current computer market scene, but it will take some SERIOUS, serious change in Microsoft's approach (FUD, monopolizing, etc.). It would be a great day, but hopefully Microsoft will at some point open at least some of its software up.
"You expect me to talk, OSS?"
"No, Mr. Gates, I expect you to die."
Michael.
Linux : Mac
Microsoft "working with it's competitors" - that just isn't realistic, it would be kinda like the Goatse man getting a job as a children's TV presenter.
"'We're going to have to figure out how to build some bridges between the various parts of our industry,' he said. Eric Raymond"
Microsoft doesn't have a problem with building bridges... As long as they're toll bridges...
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
"Eric Raymond responds, saying the first steps Microsoft could do are to open their file formats and support open standards" Response from Microsoft: Um, we wanted to build bridges that didn't involve contribution on our part.
Embrace and extend? I knew you could.
1. Denial
2. Derision
3. Accusation
4. PR
5. Inviting everyone to sit down together at table
6. Get goods on Stallman, blackmail
7. Patent everything at the table
8. Toss everyone off the table
9. Profit!
10. Sue 2000 IRS employees simultaneously, get IRS to declare Microsoft a religion
11. Try to enable Kirstie Allen's comeback
wait, got stories mixed up here...
How this discussion will go...
MSFT: What can we do to better interoperate with OSS?
OSS: How about allowing Office to work with OSS file formats, or use an open standard that other programs can interoperate with.
MSFT: Um, uhh, We'll get back to you on that one. What else?
OSS: How about using standard video file formats such as MPG instead of the perverted version of MPG called WMA that only works with WMP.
MSFT: Uh, ehh, I don't think so! Anything else?
OSS: Well, how about using a file system that is open, publishing your own, or working with OSS file systems.
MSFT: This is crazy! I'm outta here!
"It's a trick!.... Get an axe."
--Ash
Yes, it's redundant, but it bears repeating. This is obviously an attempt at co-opting the movement.
*shhh* Linus, *shhhh* I am your father *shhhh*
You're old school? I beta tested the motherf***ing abacus!
It's their head lawyer (clue the sharks with lasers comments) - which is in itself quite scary - think about what he does all day and why he might care - I suggest we send a couple of IBMs 'Nazagul' along just make sure we know what's really up
it was reported Eric Raymond was seen buying a "No, I will not fix your Windows" t-shirt...
Dude, we're talking about microsoft here, not The Church of Scientology. I can see how you could be confused though.
It could be much harder to make this work in FOSS circles, as MS really doesn't have anything to offer them
.bomb took it all away.
Hookers.
Free Hookers.
For about 30 seconds, linux was sexy and guys wearing red hats stuffed with shares could pick up the chicks.
Then the
But MS still has boatloads, freaking tanker-loads, of cash.
Do not underestimate the power of free with beer poon to halt all progress in the Free software world.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Why is it that Microsoft is always on the 'innovate or die' line when they're making billions of dollars?
The irony in all of this is that neither death nor innovation seem to make their way into the picture.
It goes a little like this...
Brad Smith: The king desires peace.
Eric Raymond: Longshanks.. er.. Gates desires peace?
Brad Smith: He declares it to me, I swear it. He proposes that you withdraw your attack. In return he grants you file formats, patents, and this chest of gold which I am to pay to you personally.
Eric Raymond: File formats and patents. Gold. That I should become Judas?
Brad Smith: Peace is made in such ways.
Eric Raymond: Slaves are made in such ways. The last time Gates spoke of peace I was a boy. And many open-source nobles, who would not be slaves, were lured by him under a flag of truce to a barn, where he embraced and extended and extinguished them. I was very young, but I remember this Gates notion of peace.
Which goes with the obvious that Windows 2000 is based on New Technology Technology.
LOAD ".SIG"
PRESS PLAY ON TAPE
They just want to get all the OSS leaders together in one room, then expose them to government-regulated IP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!
With poison in 'em. Can't forget the poison.
Is it fascism yet?
Reach out? Pfft.. wake me up when Microsoft is offering a reacharound.
"Extend an olive branch" - (vb)
(1) To attack with IP lawsuits, especially when the lawsuit is very weak, but the party being sued does not have the resources to fight it.
(2) To fund 3rd parties to attack with IP lawsuits. "Microsoft extended and olive branch, through SCO, to IBM and Daimler-Chrysler "
"Build some bridges" (vb)
To sit down with a party to decide how to most effectively extend an olive branch. (qv)
"Collaborate" (vb)
To protect one's monopoly by destroying ones opponents by any means, fair or foul. Especially of political bribery to effect legal changes that make the modus operandi of potential competitors illegal.
"Open up one's file formats"
(1) To obscure one's file formats, especially formatting, so that competitors products look buggy when viewing files.
(2) To send malformed files when ones servers are communicating with one's potential competitors. "Microsoft's web servers have opened their file formats to the Opera web-browser"
I don't know why, but this reminds me of a meeting of scotts in "Braveheart" (the one in the beginning of the movie where all attendees were hanged)