Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Investing In "Open Source" Lab In Philippines

Posted by timothy on from the damned-publically-if-they-do-or-don't dept.

jaromil writes "Following up its cozying up to OSCON, now Microsoft is launching its first 'open source' lab in the Philippines, paying for a huge media coverage. From the press release it seems they are also advertising the issue of 'interoperability' to outnumber one of the strongest features of open source in Asia: recycling old computers. Any suggestions for good stories about MS interoperability so far? :)"

2 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Re:GPL by Ghubi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think the Microsoft Public License or the Microsoft Reciprocal License might be more likely.

  2. Make no mistake. by node+3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Make no mistake, MS is not, and will not, become a good open source citizen. The only reason they will do something like this is to defend themselves from open source.

    Do you wonder why they are doing this in the Philippines? It seems likely that Open Source/Free software is taking a hold there and Microsoft is looking to build a market. Who is going to buy MS software if it's incompatible with what they are currently using (or are in the process of moving to)? This puts Microsoft out of the game. But if they can get free software developers to do the work for them and make their projects compatible with MS software, they are suddenly an option, at which point, MS can do what they do best, which is compete and destroy.

    Embrace, extend, extinguish. This is no different.

    Embrace: Hey, we'll join your open source club.
    Extend: Now that we're compatible, why don't you run some of our software too?
    Extinguish: That software of ours that you are now reliant upon? Well, here's the new version, and it doesn't work with your open source software anymore, so pay up, junkie.