Home › News › Industry News
Critics don't buy Microsoft source code offer
Critics have bashed Microsoft's offer to license parts of its Windows source code, claiming that the move is a "poison pill" for open-source projects, and their work to improve interoperability with Windows.
"The move is less appealing than it seems up front," said Carlo Piana, an attorney representing the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) in the anti-trust case. "We only need the compatibility information, nothing more, nothing less, and the ability to legally use it."
Microsoft defends the move, claiming that they have put their most valuable intellectual property on the table as a way of ensuring that third parties have everything they need to ensure interoperability with Windows. But critics have claimed that the offer of source code seems particularly designed to lock out open-source software.
"The move is less appealing than it seems up front," said Carlo Piana, an attorney representing the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) in the anti-trust case. "We only need the compatibility information, nothing more, nothing less, and the ability to legally use it."
Microsoft defends the move, claiming that they have put their most valuable intellectual property on the table as a way of ensuring that third parties have everything they need to ensure interoperability with Windows. But critics have claimed that the offer of source code seems particularly designed to lock out open-source software.
User Comments (5)
Post a comment|
gamingmage on January 31, 2006 8:05 PM |
I think that the Open Source projects and third parties should just be happy with what they got. I mean it's MS! |
|
Need_a_Dell on January 31, 2006 9:26 PM |
This may not be as bad as they've made it look. Many new age PC games that are released now come with some sort of SDK, which becomes invaluable to the modding community. Letting people who are interested in something tinker with it themselves can be the greatest move a company can make. Take Counter-Strike for example. What originally began as a home modding project turned out to be the biggest online game today! (And now Valve is making tons of dough off of it!) When Microsoft releases this open source code, they may find the employee that they've been looking for. This could ultimately benefit the entire computing community! |
|
nathanskywalker on January 31, 2006 11:22 PM |
"We want to develop our already-existing alternative product on our own code-base, making it fully compatible with Microsoft's product, not taking a ride on Microsoft's code," Oh cry me a river! IT's Microsoft! What do you expect! you want them to just hand you the source code on a itanium platter i suppose? gosh, be glad to get what you got. Take what you have, work with, make it better, then mabye they'll give you more.
|
|
spike on February 1, 2006 7:25 AM |
err, no. They didn't want the source code at all. Why people are so quick to defend the faceless profit oriented corporartion that they can't see that is beyond me. It plainly says that they didin't want the source code. |
|
Kreuger on February 2, 2006 10:37 AM |
I think it'd take much longer than Microsoft has already been around for people to secure third party programs integration with MS products on a solid level because of how poorly coded their products tend to be but that's just me |
Most Popular
| Trending | Featured |