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Gates Pushes Open-Source Approach to HIV Research
dan the person writes that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation "has donated $287m to 16 different research groups around the world to work on developing an HIV vaccine. The catch? They have to share their work even if the groups were previously competing against each other. Sounds like a familiar development model to me, I wonder where I have seen it before?" Besides the BBC's coverage, the Seattle Times has a good story about the grant, with a few more details about how the money will be spent.
People's lives depend on a cure/vaccine/treatment for HIV/AIDS. People's lives do not depend on the development of software
Except in cases of rape, people can easily avoid getting infected with HIV/AIDS. Abstinence or safe sex cost nothing, and they have the additional benefit of reducing population growth.
You cannot avoid using Microsoft software. Every dollar that Microsoft makes in monopoly profits (i.e., every dollar that Microsoft makes that goes beyond what they would make in an efficient market) is money that's not available for public health, education, or development.
Dollar for dollar, money available for improving the economy and infrastructure of third world nations is going to save more lives than money available for an AIDS vaccine.
So, I think, overall, when Microsoft uses its monopoly profits to take money out of the economy and funnel it into the development of projects designed to make Gates look better, you're getting the worst of both worlds: money becomes unavailable for productive uses, and it is funnelled into projects that make Gates look good but are not particularly rational.