Microsoft is the largest software company in the world, a point to which I think just about everyone will agree. They have used a closed source model for their entire existence, but their recent actions make me wonder if they are experimenting with the idea of becoming at least somewhat open source.
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lozz
14 years 23 weeks 1 day 4 hours ago
Won't change its spots
M$ won't change its spots; it's a business method far more than it's a software company. If M$ was selling soap powder they'd be trying to do exactly the same thing.
1. Use a secret recipe.
2. Try to wipe out all opposition; legally, or illegally.
3. Use lawyers, patents and political contacts, to protect the monopoly.
4. Use the monopoly to leverage extortionate payment.
5. Use the monopoly to avoid further development expenses.
The business method is all that matters to M$, not what they're selling.
They'll never change that.
Lanadapter
14 years 23 weeks 12 hours 15 min ago
Yeah but,
Free/open source software will completely disrupt Microsoft's core business if we can get a few things right:
1. Hardware support(Linux already has amazing support, but improvements still need to be made)
2. User interface, most interfaces in floss are not friendly to the average user(This is finally being addressed properly by several important projects)
3. Standard package system/audio(ubuntu is the majority distro now, if the trend continues upward it will effectively enact a standard)
So really they don't have any other choice but to monetize FLOSS if they want to stay in the software business.