Microsoft's Code Contribution Due To GPL Violation

ozmanjusri writes "While Microsoft presented its recent embrace of the GPL as 'a break from the ordinary,' and the press spoke of them as going to great lengths to engage the open source community,' as is often the case with Microsoft, it turns out they had an ulterior motive. According to Stephen Hemminger, an engineer with Vyatta, Microsoft's Hyper-V used open-source components in a network driver and the company released the code to avoid legal action over a GPL violation. Microsoft's decision to embrace the GPL was welcomed by many in the open source community, but their failure to honestly explain the reason behind the release will have squandered this opportunity to build trust, something which is sadly lacking in most people's dealings with Microsoft."

Comments

Re:The people who don't trust MS

[jedidiah]

Well, that whole nonsense about VFAT is nothing to take lightly.

If Microsoft could, they would gladly sabotage my ability to use
Linux. They would gladly sabotage my ability to easily use my
digital camera, my video camera and my personal media player.

I should be free to completely ignore Microsoft if I want to.

This is what seperates them from Ford, or McDonalds, or Campbells
and generates a lot of the ill will that some people like to
demonize others for.