An open-source version of Windows would mean not only would we publish Windows source code, we would make it free. That's what open source means. We wouldn't be hosting Minority Student Day if we open-source Windows because we wouldn't have enough profit to pay people, let alone invite in people from the community.

I'm not saying open-source is a bad thing, but it doesn't pay the bills in this company, so we can't embrace that way of doing things. ... We give out free soda pop to everybody who works here. We make our stuff free, people gotta give back the soda pop -- it's just inconsistent with what we do around here.

Ignorance, thy name is Ballmer.

The FOSS (Free/Open Source Software) Community knows, thanks to leaked Microsoft internal documents, that since about 1998 Microsoft has been in a sort of war against them. Because of this, it is not surprising that the FOSS community has looked at Microsoft with suspicion and has vilified it to no end. But, is Microsoft really evil?

Since early this decade, Microsoft has been promoting their software framework, the .NET platform and its associated libraries. Now up to incarnation v3.5, Windows developers worldwide have rejoiced at the framework source code finally being made available. Yet, does this reflect any trend towards open source by the Redmond giant? How generous is the license and what does it mean?

SEC document shows that Microsoft is entitled to receive key technical documentation from the Linux distributor -- even if that documentation is not generally available to open source software developers

The news is here, today 'LinuxTreat' in association with other open-source developer had released some flavor of Windows for free (you may also download the source code)

In recent weeks I have banged on about Open Source, expending two articles on Firefox alone. Open Source applications make their code available to everyone. Disagreements and rabid balkanisation within the Open Source community aside, for our purposes the term might as well refer to free software whose licence allows you to share the source code, alter it, use it, do with it what you will.

In an unforseen move Microsoft has announced the release of the Windows 95, 98, Me and MS-DOS source code for today only. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said that "by releasing the code for these operating systems we are allowing software developers worldwide to create better applications for these systems".

A tiny but strategic Silicon Valley company is helping Microsoft to certify open source applications for Windows Server 2008. It’s a super-smart move by Microsoft, The VAR Guy believes, as the software giant strives to compete effectively with Linux and ensure Windows Server remains popular in the age of open source.

Scribus is an open-source DTP application, started in 2001 and written by people who are clearly opinionated on subjects like typography and page design. The program is a free download and is cross-platform, with versions available for Windows Vista/XP/2000, Mac OS X, OS/2 and Linux.