I recall Desk Overview long ago in IRIX. There was even an IP dispute over some aspects of this widget with another company (who's name I have forgotten).
See
here for a note a decade old about how cool this thing was. It had (has) several features that the linux pager lacks. Hopefully, IMD4Linux will give them back to me!
Not to mention that they would get the benefits of Open Source as well -- when you open the code, you get a lot of developers who are willing to work on it. Microsoft could significantly reduce their development staff and have developers mainly organize contributions from the community. With the headcount reduction, Microsoft's share price would soar as they'd save billions on payroll.
I doubt that many developers would work pro bono on mSFT code base should it ever become open source. Fact it, most OSS developers contribute for their own benefit, be that notoriety, experience gained or the sheer pleasure of it. Having mSFT comoditize their work would certainly lend to a very sour turn.
mSFT recognizes that they are a slowly sinking ship, and are rabid rats scrambling greedily to retain their mighty market share. They cannot compete with OSS; Ballmer has grasped the benefits (he's not as stupid as he dances) and must now obfuscate the issue.
Fear not, the mSFT heyday is over. Although very eloquently put, Taylors comments are but a shallow attempt to paint a happy face on Dorian Grey.
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I recall Desk Overview long ago in IRIX. There was even an IP dispute over some aspects of this widget with another company (who's name I have forgotten). See here for a note a decade old about how cool this thing was. It had (has) several features that the linux pager lacks. Hopefully, IMD4Linux will give them back to me!
I doubt that many developers would work pro bono on mSFT code base should it ever become open source. Fact it, most OSS developers contribute for their own benefit, be that notoriety, experience gained or the sheer pleasure of it. Having mSFT comoditize their work would certainly lend to a very sour turn.
mSFT recognizes that they are a slowly sinking ship, and are rabid rats scrambling greedily to retain their mighty market share. They cannot compete with OSS; Ballmer has grasped the benefits (he's not as stupid as he dances) and must now obfuscate the issue.
Fear not, the mSFT heyday is over. Although very eloquently put, Taylors comments are but a shallow attempt to paint a happy face on Dorian Grey.