Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Open Source Guy Takes the Hardest Job At Microsoft

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the because-he-can dept.

jbrodkin writes "Gianugo Rabellino, founder of the Italian Linux Society and a key member of the Apache Software Foundation, traded his Linux and Mac PCs in for a Windows 7 laptop and took on a newly created job at Microsoft designed to encourage collaboration between Redmond and open source communities. 'Developers nowadays are mostly to be found in the open source world,' the new Microsoft executive says. 'We need to go where they are.' With Rabellino's help, Microsoft is expanding its successful partnership with PHP developers , but Steve Ballmer and crew are a long way from completely erasing their poor reputation in Linux and open source circles."

7 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. As always... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's a trap!

    1. Re:As always... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actions speak loudest.

      There are lot of people working in the open source software industry who have no problems with working with Microsoft. We've just been burned a few times and aren't interested in wasting time with people who talk the talk but won't walk the walk... In other words, get back to me when they're actually doing something other than barring copyleft from WP7 marketplace or claiming that linux kernel violates hundreds of patents without prodiving any verifiable facts.

      So, to get back to your comment: what exactly has MS done that we should be interested of and how should we "move on" with regards to that? I've heard they're actually useful (or at least not harmful) in the PHP circles -- good for the PHP folks. That doesn't mean I'm going to trust or rely on Microsoft in my projects (mostly on the mobile client side), not without considerable show of commitment from them.

    2. Re:As always... by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh bullcrap. They create a position like this every year or two, then we get this little "Ask the Quisling some Questions!!!" to which said quisling will answer that Microsoft has changed, that Microsoft wants to co-operate with the FOSS community, blah blah blah and then suddenly in the midst of all this goodwill Ballmer announces that Linux or OpenOffice or whatever violates ten bazillion of Microsoft's patents.

      Fuck this guy.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  2. Grim future... by andrea.sartori · · Score: 5, Funny

    Successful partnership between Microsoft and PHP developers. What could possibly go wrong?

    --
    Mostly harmless.
  3. examples by ciaran_o_riordan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I mean, I don't know this guy personally, so it's not an attack on him, but MS has hired various "open source" people in the past, and what do we get?

    MS pays Nokia to drop KDE and MeeGo. MS pays Novell to develop a C# and .Net stuff (which prevents the antitrust commission calling them a monopoly), and when Novell goes bust, MS buys their patents.

    I don't see any indication that this hire is any good news for us.

    --
    Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
  4. When someone removes a turd from a punchbowl by phonewebcam · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No one wants to take a drink from it, no matter how thoroughly they claim to have cleaned it.

  5. He's there for PHP by mangu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    According to TFA, 'Rabellino's main focus right now "is to enable PHP to shine on our platforms."'

    So, he's there to get people to migrate from LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP) systems to WIMP (Windows, IIS, MS-SQL, PHP) systems.