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Story: Microsoft: 'We should learn from open source'
Posted by: Wynand Winterbach (Wednesday 12 November 2003, 9:05 PM)
Microsoft certainly can learn from Open Source, but I don't think things will be very reciprocal. For one, the O/S world is often more cutting edge (just browse SourceForge at sourceforge.net), but the non-technical user won't see it this way (unfortunately).
As for Redhat's choice - well, they never really did support users who didn't pay for technical service. Besides, the new Fedora distribution falls into Redhat's place, so there is really nothing to worry about.
Suse has always been more commercial, so I cannot see how their acquistion by Novell will change anything.
(Please note that neither Suse nor Redhat may actually stop you from duplicating the software, which is GPL (mostly), but they have the right to decide when to give you technical support)
The Microsoft Employee's quip on virusses shows quite worryingly what Microsoft's policies on safety are - since he's obviously never utilised Linux, he's unaware of the security measures implemented in most Linux Distributions that make virusses pretty useless (they can only really wreak havoc in one user's directory) - it's worrying, since Microsoft thinks that there is no need to do better and just assumes that everything other piece of software is as vulnerable as its own. It's not - the Internet would have been history had it not been for Solaris, FreeBSD and Linux, all of which are Unix-like, and all of which are a lot safer than Windows with regards to virusses.
No, Open Source is just starting to gain momentum, and Microsoft should really stop flattering itself over its business model.
It's a shame that again, non-technical users will trust Microsoft, no matter how distorted their claims.
Oh well.
Full Talkback thread
Story: Microsoft: 'We should learn from open source'
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[quote]
But when it comes down to how seriously th... Anonymous -
What is this talk about "public domain" and "open... Anonymous
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Somebody tell Bradley Tipp that I convert all wind... Michael Geier
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Microsoft certainly can learn from Open Source, bu... Wynand Winterbach -
"We haven't talked to a single user who has said t... Shane
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Gee, Mr. Tipp. I use open source software most oft... Anonymous
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[Quote] "We haven't talked to a single user who ha... Philip Brink
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I use Open Source software because it is better th... Shane Doucette
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I use open Source Software because it's better and... James Dehnert
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I tend to seperate the ideas of "Free Software" an... Won Kim
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In response to the claim that nobody says they're... David EIsner
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Of course there are good reasons why "Microsoft re... Rodd Clarkson
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"What is this talk about 'public domain' and 'open... Anonymous
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> One Microsoft employee even went so far as to sa... Walter Dnes
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"We haven't talked to a single user who has said t... Michael Paddon
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Any chance I could get Tipp's number?
We ditched M... Anonymous
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I use open source software because it's much bette... Rodd Clarkson
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Microsoft's Tipp said: "We haven't talked to a sin... Dennis McClain-Furmanski
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No users mentioned that Open Source was better at... Anonymous
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"We haven't talked to a single user who has said t... Charles Oertel
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learn, but give to it something instead. dmitry
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Well, I use Open Source 'cos it's better.
Free BSD... Anonymous
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Why does Microsoft always claim that "everyone" sh... Anonymous
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Open source V Public Domain
The reason Microsoft i... Anonymous
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When Microsoft starts talking like this, we'd bett... William Poetra Yoga Hadisoeseno
