Wednesday, August 25, 2010:
Has Microsoft finally come of age? The Telegraph, UK, reports that the Microsoft's general manager for interoperability strategy team, Jean Paoli, told Network World that Microsoft's previous criticism of open source software was a 'mistake' and now the company 'loves' open source software and have worked with open source for a long time. Paoli also mentioned that the company was committed to open standards and had embraced a number of schemes to help promote open source initiatives.
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Previously, in 2001, Steve Ballmer, the company’s chief executive, described Linux as a “cancer” that threatened the intellectual property of his company. Back in 2007, Microsoft accused Linux and other open source providers of violating more than 235 of its patents. Again in 2008, Bill Gates claimed that open source licences ensure "that nobody can ever improve the software." But, Paoli now claims that all has changed. He said that the company made the mistake of equating all open source technology with Linux "very early on."
Is this change in stance powered by the superior security, affordability and flexibility of open source software? Is it powered by the fact that Windows' market share has been steadily slipping over time? Is it powered by Android's success and Windows' failure to grab the mobile market? Maybe Microsoft finally opened its mind to the fact that a collaborative, community open approach to software is superior for everyone than the closed-door, restrictive, proprietary one.
Paoli said that Microsoft had been heavily involved in the creation of open source software. He supported his cause with the examples of OData, an open data protocol which aims to “free” data from applications and Microsoft's Azure team, which is exploring the benefits of cloud-based software and services. He went to the extent of releasing software development kits for those coding in PHP and Java, rather than Microsoft’s proprietary .NET platform.
Microsoft can not be trusted when it comes to open source. Microsoft may behave better and more openly use open source, but this is because they realized that businesses and software developers warm up to open source more than their proprietary.
So, this change in stance doesn't mean that they really support open source. Or does it? What do you think?
Shabbir Akhtar, EFYTIMES News Network
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