Slashdot Mirror
Ballmer "Interested" In Open Source Browser Engine
Da Massive writes "'Why is IE still relevant and why is it worth spending money on rendering engines when there are open source ones available that can respond to changes in Web standards faster?,' asked a young developer to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in Sydney yesterday. 'That's cheeky, but a good question, but cheeky,' Ballmer said. Then came the startling revelation that Microsoft may also adopt an open source browser engine. 'Open source is interesting,' he said. 'Apple has embraced Webkit and we may look at that, but we will continue to build extensions for IE 8.'"
What is worse is they are wanting WebKit. I think if they manage to use it we will end up with 3-4 versions of WebKit in various forms of stability, freedom and standards compatability:
We will have KDE's WebKit which will be somewhat stable to very stable depending on the release.
We will have MS's Strange proprietary(ish) WebKit which will lag behind all other versions in compatibility and compliance while at the same time having all kinds of hacks to make Active X and other crap work.
We will have Apple's Quite Stable WebKit which will be about in the middle and very stable.
And we will also have Google's Bleeding-edge Beta WebKit which is the least stable out of all of them.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
TCP/IP might be an open protocol but everybody is using the original BSD implementation of it. This includes all unix, Macs, and Windows.
So you are referring to ineffective excessive government control.
So your argument hinges on government regulations always being 100% effective? Wow.
So, to characterise excessive government control as less competition is extremely misleading.
You're burning a straw man.
I had assumed it was obvious, after people looked beyond the one or two cases of government regulation being anti-competition (in free markets)
See? They EXIST. That's the ENTIRE point. That's it. Nothing more. You just 100% agreed with me.
It's always a long day... 86400 doesn't fit into a short.
Its much bigger than that - the GPL has some major drawbacks for a company.
Say you're ChildCo, a multinational company, and a subsidiary of ParentCo. Well, you develop a great intranet based on MediaWiki, which is GPL. Now another subsidiary of ParentCo, SisterCo, wants it, so you send them a copy. Is that considered distribution?
If it is distribution, you're now legally required to make available copies of the modified source code, at least by mail. A competitor gets wind of this, sends you a letter, and now you're legally bound to release your internally-developed intranet to your competitor, gutting your competitive advantage.
Learn about Photography Basics.
I used Vista, XP, Linux, and OSX. I own and operate a computer store.
If you had one iota of intellect you'd have been following what happened with the Justice Department trial, Microsoft's conviction, and what the States themselves uncovered and disclosed to the American public. If you had one iota of intellect you'd have followed that Japan, South Korea, and the EU have all found Microsoft guilty of unfair trade practices and deemed them a monopoly. If you had followed Microsoft's action after the EU conviction you would not be questioning the motivation of those who are trying to bring some balance back to this market.
If you had one iota of intellect you'd have some understanding that you can't overcome a monopoly and the very bad influences of that monopoly on any given market by ignoring it. People must take action. That action starts with a few, and hopefully many others will follow suit.
If you had any clue about life at all you'd fight for that which is greater than you.
I am angry but not in the way you try to assuage with your humiliation tactic. So, you don't have a brain and you can't think for yourself or you are being paid in some way to try to block the advances of other OSes.
As much as I despise Microsoft I also despise the lack of effort I see in people in the Open Source arena. But, with Microsoft I can do nothing but give them more money, whereas with Open Source I can give them my commitment to help them make things better.
You, you're just a dog. Go lay in your own shit and stop tramping it around here for everyone else to smell.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.