I'm going through Craig Mundie's speech
(http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/craig/05-03sharedsource.asp),
and I'm thinking okay, here's a scenario: What if MS wants their code to
get out, not officially, but they release it to certain companies
(partners, what-have-you), and someone in those companies leaks the
source to the outside world, either genuinely on accident, or
"accidentally on purpose", or on purpose, but it's not MS's direct
doing.
What do you think would happen? I can hear the hackles now as many an
Open Source developer laughs at M$'s code. The shreiks of criticism
sound loudly. People say, "I can't believe they did that!" or "Why don't
they do this, instead?" Then M$ quietly incorporates this stuff. Very
subtle.
I think they see the power of Open Source, but can't bring themselves to
admit it. Or their stockholders can't. One of the two. Maybe they're
realizing ESR's arguments from the book "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"
about the logical end of the proprietary software life-cycle vis a vis
the Open Source software life-cycle which is continually open to new
ideas. Maybe M$ is just hard up for ideas...
Russell
____________________________________________________
_its_ (no apostrophe) means "the thing that it owns"
_it's_ (with apostrophe) means "it is"
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