Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Did Microsoft Borrow GPL Code For a Windows 7 Utility?

Posted by Soulskill on from the free-as-in-gimme dept.

Goatbert writes "Rafael Rivera over at WithinWindows.com has found evidence that Microsoft has potentially stolen code from an open source/GPL'd project (ImageMaster) for a utility made available on the Microsoft Store to allow download customers to copy the Windows 7 setup files to a DVD or USB Flash Drive. If Rivera's evidence holds up, this could be some serious egg in the face for Microsoft at a time when they're getting mostly good press from the tech media."

1 of 493 comments (clear)

  1. Re:not sureprised by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    >> Microsoft is evil. Always has been. Always will be.

    > Maybe you're very young, but I seem to recall that Microsoft was at one time held as a sort of liberator from IBM's hegemony. I guess it's all a matter of perspective...

    Maybe YOU are very young. IBM was taking a beating and didn't manage to get their own PC done.

    So they assembled a task force and said go and get us an IBM PC.

    They did it -- without IBM parts!

    The processor was from Intel and the OS from a small company who had to buy it from someone else, because they couldn't do it in time (little did we know then what these guys were up to).

    In summary, there were a lot of good computers with other OSes, the main ones being CP/M and AppleDOS (not necessarily the better ones).

    So:

    1) M$ actually helped IBM (for money, of course) and
    2) M$ is known to innovate after others innovated first.

    I could cite sources, but this way we can argue longer. 8-)

    Not that anyone reads ACs here anymore...