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Microsoft Gets a New Open Source Chief
mjasay writes "Microsoft just promoted Sam Ramji to run its growing Linux and open source operations. The former head of Microsoft's Open Source Software Lab, Ramji has a long history with open source, having built out large-scale open-source based applications while at Ofoto, and continuing to run applications like World of Warcraft and Office 2003 on WINE. Microsoft has been putting increasingly open-source savvy people in this role, starting with Jason Matusow and most recently employing Bill Hilf in the role. Ramji has made friends with many in the open-source business and development communities, but will his promotion spell any sort of an about-face for Microsoft in its patent policies? It's unlikely, but at least it demonstrates a step in the right direction."
Man, I loved his work with the Spiderman movies. I didn't know he was an open source advocate to.
Good to see Ratatouille got a job after the restaurant gig failed.
Microsoft won't change their patent policy, regardless of who is at the helm of their open source division. That policy is set at the top and won't change until Ballmer and Gates are gone for good.
My Sysadmin Blog
Patents, although worrisome will go away in the long run, the main points that MS should get is support Linux , some technologies such as Office would be decent Linux apps that people would pay for if either it was a native Linux version or was seamlessly integrated in WINE. MS needs to stop turning a blind eye to Linux if they ever hope to gain respect and marketshare. Competition improves quality and if MS would port over some of its applications (as badly coded as much of them are) the OSS developers would have to make substantial improvements to get them better then MS's product.
There is no "disagree" moderation, and troll, flamebait and overrated are not valid substitutes
I wonder if this is the beginning of MS splitting into two different wings to meet different needs. The heavily patented and closed software, which might be appropriate for some clients; and a new open source branch to sell products to clients that will be better by open software.
We are all just people.
Sam Ramji is an acronym for
"I am Sam jr"
There you have it. Microsoft is pure evil !
We need to get out while we still can !
It doesn't hurt Microsoft to be well versed in the ways of their rivals, even if they do not practice thier techniques themselves.
"Taboo, like anything else, goes in and out of style."
... to see a stealth MS-funded Linux distro. One that crashes and shits out, just to show people how much better Windows is a-la them sponsoring all those Linux "news" sites and putting up anti-Linux/pro-Windows banners.
We figured out a long time ago that it's easier to elect seven judges than to elect 132 legislators.
This is exactly the reason why RedHat wants Microsoft to get a vasectomy.
RutSum.com
Wait Microsoft... developing open sour... *Head explodes*
When I saw the video of his Heise conference talk I thought, he looks like a trade fair presenter without any clue of the underlying technology. I can be wrong. But at least he is no person that appears to have the required independence and integrity required for the job. Why don't they take Miguel who is almost assimilated. At least he is an open mind and has an independent record of achievements outside Microsoft. I believe that Office on Wine is a pretty inspiring idea of cross-plattform. In the 90th Microsoft wanted Win32 everywhere but then it went on the anti-Linux ideology road and promoted unreasonable patent policies in nations abroad. When you see how Jason Matusow promoted OOXML you can clearly see that these persons do care less about technologist-friendly business pratices. Developers, developers, developers, was Ballmers slogan. I start to understand why. The company forgot to take the opinion of its developer community serious and inspire them.
So, does anyone remember the whole Deutsch Physiks thing, and how that cost the Germans valuable people in the tech side of the arms race during world warII. I imagine this is sort of like losing Edward Teller would have been.
Heads up Sam, it's a trap. Let's just say they don't have our people's best interests at heart.
I got a catholic block.
After a company I think has battled and flung caustic slander against open source this long .. they even underhandedly boosted the SCO lawsuit in an attempt to carry out a hit on Linux. I'm not going to believe they're suddenly our friends (when the British hired Benedict Arnold, they didn't become patriots).
Let's see them do more, let's see them contribute to the WINE project. Let's see them open source Vista and MS Office.
I believe in forgiveness, but only when the party is genuinely remorseful and truly sorry for their misdeed.
Let's not fall into yet another Microsoft "revenue protecting" trap.
"Microsoft Gets a New Open Source Chief"
Is it Miguel de Icaza?!! Is it??!
(reads summary)
Awwwwww... disappointment... :)
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
Microsoft always tries to keep an eye on what the open-source world is doing. Perhaps to steal ideas, perhaps to embrace, extend and extinguish new emerging standards and technology.
Maybe they actually intend to work on interoperability. However, I think it is too early to guess, let alone really know what they intend to do here.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
I thought we were calling these positions Czars. I get so sick of these kinds of announcements. Since when did a single person (who was not a Shareholder) ever truly alter a corporate culture
China added a military unit comprised primarily of Smurfs. We wish them well.
I don't know, I'm hoping you do. Is there any way that Windows and Linux are able to provide mutual benefits to each other? Or are they exclusive? Because the only thing that will make Microsoft truly support open-source is the very real fact that they need to make money off of it. Anything less would open them up to liability when the shareholders sue. Pesky shareholders.
Shh.
I find it utterly incredible the extent to which Microsoft has embraced OSS. Back almost ten years ago, when I started college, Linux was just beginning to make major in-roads to MS market share. MS pooh-poohed, ridiculed and generally played down Linux. Now they have an OPEN SOURCE CHIEF! Gandhi's quote about ignoring, laughing and then winning is becoming more relevant re: MS & Linux as the days go by.
That's like being Rosie O'Donnell's personal trainer.
[apologies to David Letterman]
GM has a VP for Quality. Exxon has a VP for Environmental Protection. Why shouldn't Microsoft have a VP of Open Source technologies?
Today the Samba Team announced that they're satisfied with the agreement, and are taking a Work Group Server Protocol Program (WSPP) trade secret and copyright license. This will give them access to Microsoft specifications for the protocols in WSPP (such as file, print, and user and group administrative services) and allow the Samba Team to create, use, and distribute implementations. I expect that this will significantly improve the process of Samba development, and produce better quality interoperation between Windows and Linux/UNIX environments.
What this process has shown me is that if we focus on technology, and patient, diligent execution, we can make real progress together.
This is a historic moment, and one that I'm proud of. But it is only a moment, and now it's time to get back to working on interoperability, one day at a time. You really should be proud of this hard work!! If it hadn't been for the EC Microsoft would never had even thought about giving anyone such access without first emptying their pockets.
Some poor person got a job trying to help evil corporation understand FOSS. Geez, with those qualifications, most of us could have that job, but I think I speak for most FOSS folk that a job offer from evil corporation would be not only a no, but a hell bit my shiny metal ass.
They are talking about SCO, aren't they?
I will remain skeptical of Microsoft until the day it GPLs its source code for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office, and adopts ODF as a standard. Until then, Microsoft will be the same Microsoft that just last month engaged in cheating and fraud to get its MOOXML specification accepted as a standard.
This is not to say that I hate Microsoft or wish their stock ill. But it does mean that Microsoft's business model is based on leverage its monopoly on the consumer desktop operating system and its office productivity suite application. Relentless, merciless competition is deeply embedded into Microsoft's business structure, much more so than other proprietary software vendors. Because Microsoft's business structure depends on maintaining its monopoly status, they will not tolerate any competition at all in that space, and they will resort to both legal and illegal (anti-trust) means of achieving their goals.
Microsoft... blowing hot air?
Nothing new.
Honestly, I don't care whether they're lying or whether they're just incapable of delivering on their promises. Either way, there's no reason to suddenly trust that Microsoft really means it this time.
http://outcampaign.org/
Bullshit. This is simply their attempt to own open source. They want to embrace, extend, extinguish.
Their model has nothing to do with the decade old definition of open source.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
Linux does not equal open source. Linux is a major part of OSS, but one does not equal the other. It is entirely posssible for Microsoft to be interested in open source without even looking at Linux.
I run Wine so that I can run Cygwin and have a bash terminal running under Linux!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
...it seems to me that any major commercial software company would be insane not to follow open source closely.
When most people start talking about open source, they quickly turn into armchair intellectual property lawyers and the discussion veers toward talk of business models, patents, copyrights, licenses, and so on. It's easy to forget that the primary product of the open source movement is a lot of really interesting code.
What's more, while this code may be copyrighted and licensed, it's generally patent-unencumbered. This means that Microsoft is free to take pretty much any interesting and novel idea that might come out of open source and rip it off -- rewrite the basic algorithm in C# and slap it into a commercial, closed-source product.
The best case the open source community could come up with is to say that Microsoft's code was a derivative work of their own, copyrighted code -- but that would require A.) money, for B.) lawyers, who C.) gain access to Microsoft's code in discovery, and D.) luck out, in that Microsoft failed so miserably to write code that didn't resemble the open source original that they left an obvious smoking gun.
What are the chances? It's not like there aren't any good programmers at Microsoft.
In other words, in an age where most corporations are trimming R&D to enhance their bottom lines, Microsoft (and every other software company) has an amazing R&D resource in the work of the open source community. And hell, if anything really amazing comes along, it wouldn't be too difficult to wave a bunch of money under the developer's nose and get their efforts working for you, full-time.
What's not to like?
Breakfast served all day!
That's the problem with corporate America,
To many chief's, and not enough indians.
So where exactly can I download the source code for this "chief"?
oh no, now the youtube commenters are spilling over to slashdot.
And they learned the word "sheeple". The horror, the horror.
MS has the biggest Mac lab outside of Cupertino, and you can bet it has the biggest Linux lab outside of Novell/IBM/Redhat. How else does MS copy and steal the best ideas?
I thought it said "Open Source Chef" and wondered what a South Park character was doing at Microsoft.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Microsoft has launched a new bio-warfare division and is attempting to gene-splice the cancer mutagens from Linux with Minesweeper DNA in an effort to cause brain tumours in open source advocates.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Every time you publish a headline with "Microsoft" and "open source" in the same headline, all you're doing is helping Microsoft bastardize and pervert the term. I've been using and turning people on to Linux for ten years now, but it's only been this last year that I'm starting to hear people say, "Oh yeah, open source! I've heard of that! Bill Gates invented it!"
They're doing it on purpose. So is Slashdot. So are all of you. And it all shows just how much you hypocrite cradle-robbers SUCK when the only way anybody can point that out is from an AC account.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_Kool-Aid_Acid_Test It's never going to be good news from Redmond. Open Source from MS will always be free kool-aid.
he was primarily responsible for the arrangement of seating devices on the decks of a certain White Star oceanliner.
Ramji is a complete MSFT tool. I heard him speak at OSBC 2007 - for some reason they let him be on the panel - and at one point the response he made when asked about MSFT and patents vis a vis open-source was such a MSFT-shill line that he actually caused the entire room (composed of engineers and lawyers) to laugh out loud. It was not a chuckle; his line was so obviously MSFT-speak and was so cynical (wonder where my notes are ... I'll see if I can dig them up). He didn't even crack a smile.
I wouldn't trust him farther than I could throw him. Why OSBC and others in open-source let these guys on the panels is a mystery to me.
It's like making Darth Vader part of the committee that's responsible for security on Alderaan.
1. Hire people who would otherwise be a considerable asset to your competitor(s)
If they like working for you, great - promote them! But if their heart is not in it then you can't trust them, so:
2. Give them busy work until they realize you are wasting their time
3. Make them sign a contract to not work for any of your competitors for X years after they leave
4. Profit!
Keep your tinfoil hat on and you'll see it too! It's an evil plot I tell you!
Seriously though, I'd like to know what kind of terms an MS employee must agree to. Is it possible that MS is monopolizing the workforce by contract?
Does Daniel Robbins read Slashdot?
Meesa think Darth Vada make mooie-mooie good security chief!
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
...wasn't he Frodo's faithful companion in the Indian version of LOTR?
It seems to me that Microsoft fears loosing ground in the emerging economies which are opting for Linux for price reasons. MS also wants to keep a lighter OS to dominate the growing UMPC/MID market.
The answer is simple, just GPL (or at least 'free as in beer' license) Windows XP. It will be price competitive with Linux for emerging countries and will be a great OS for those lower powered UMPCs.
MS originally planned to end retail and OEM sales of XP this year anyway so they weren't planning on making any money on new XP sales and they can still charge for support services even under GPL.
IF MS truly believes in Vista's superiority then users who have the money and 'Vista capable' machines will buy it right?
You want fun, go home and buy a monkey!
Not to feed the trolls, but what's with the Slaughterhouse Five references? Or are their other "K. Trouts"?
DATABASE WOW WOW
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
With the news of Windows 7 breaking binary compatibility with previous versions of the OS, talks of greater modularization and MS's obvious moves in the OSS space... I keep *dreaming* that Windows 7 will actually just be a desktop environment sitting on top of GNU/Linux kernel.
Call me crazy but I would find a strange source of glee if I could choose "Windows 7" as my session from GDM.
I think the line you are looking for is that you wouldn't trust him further than you can spit a rat (Zaphod Beeblebrox).
Gerry
The last drone proved to be ineffective, and the collective deactivated it. Its implants were removed for recycling, and the rest of it was ejected through the waste disposal. The collective has selected another drone, and it will once again attempt to assimilate what has proven difficult. If assimilation cannot be completed, we must destroy the other entity. The collective cannot tolerate other entities. The collective can only tolerate assimilation or destruction.
Yeah, the OSBC conference in May was pretty tough. With the journalist-heavy audience I had to stick with the most careful language possible, because any misstatement could be interpreted as legally binding to the company. Those environments are the least conducive to practical and constructive discussions of the issues.
Reminds me of http://www.winehq.org/?issue=311#Microsoft%20WGA%20&%20Wine ... expect this is not microsoft.com isn't it?