Showing posts with label open source windows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label open source windows. Show all posts

10 March 2008

What Microsoft Groks Not

The other Microsoft Bill on open-sourcing Windows:

Open sourcing Windows is more hassle than it's worth and Microsoft sees little gain in releasing code, according to the man leading Microsoft's server marketing and platform strategy.

Microsoft general manager Bill Hilf has said the Windows source code is "irrelevant for what people want".

But what you seem not to understand, Bill, is that opening up helps *you* make Windows better, which is hardly "irrelevant for what people want."

19 October 2007

Microsoft's Monopoly: "Indisputably Resilient"

Well, well:

In what appears to be a surprise move, four state attorneys general who previously praised the effectiveness of Microsoft's antitrust settlement with the feds are now changing course.

In a nine-page court filing with U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Thursday, officials in New York, Maryland, Louisiana and Florida said they were joining a group of six states, led by California, and the District of Columbia in calling for extending oversight on Redmond until 2012.

And listen to this:

The New York group's filing centers largely on what it calls the "indisputably resilient" monopoly that Microsoft holds in the operating system realm. The attorneys general said they were "mindful" that Windows' approximately 90 percent market share in client operating systems is not the only test for how successful the antitrust agreement has been. But they added, "the absence of meaningful erosion in Windows' market share is still problematic for the public interest."

What a fine phrase that is: "indisputably resilient". I think I could really get to like using that....

12 July 2007

BBC Listens - or Pretends To...

Good to hear:

The BBC Trust has asked to meet open source advocates to discuss their complaints over the corporation's Windows-only on demand broadband TV service, iPlayer.

The development came less than 48 hours after a meeting between the Open Source Consortium (OSC) and regulators at Ofcom on Tuesday. Officials agreed to press the trust, the BBC's governing body, to meet the OSC. The consortium received an invitation on Wednesday afternoon.

Since they had to be shoved into doing this by Ofcom, I somehow can't see the BBC actually doing anything as a result. But I'm willing to be proved wrong.

19 April 2007

Microsoft Embraces (Nearly) Free Software

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is using a speech in Beijing to unveil a new low-cost bundle of Office and Windows, one of several new initiatives aimed at getting PCs into the hands of more people in emerging markets.

The software maker will offer the $3 Student Innovation Suite to governments that agree to directly purchase PCs for students to use in their schoolwork and at home.

I've always been surprised Microsoft hasn't done this before, since it was fighting a losing battle against completely free software in developing countries. But aside from its competitive aspect, there's one that interests me more.

Microsoft is gradually reducing the perceived price of its software to zero. Apart from the difficulties this will cause it in those markets where it is still charging hundreds of dollars, it also means that the move to open sourcing its code, and literally giving it away, comes one step closer. It'll happen, mark my words.

10 July 2006

Microsoft's Open Source Windows

It looks like at least one person at Microsoft gets it:

One of the things that I’d like to see us do as a company is release a free, Open-Source, stripped-down version of Windows. There are so many benefits, IMO. We could cut out much of the “integration and innovation” and ship a bare-bones, essentials-only operating system with source that would allow the Open Source community to take a look at our code and really build on it. As SaaS (Software as a Service) and Web 2.0 apps take center stage, there is less and less motivation for customers to plunk down their dollars for a completely proprietary OS, and I see Linux gaining steam in that environment unless we are able to do something significant.

Now, the interesting question is whether this is an officially-sanctioned bit of kite-flying or not. I don't think it is; but I do think we will see an open source Windows one day.... (Via Digg.)

04 July 2006

Wine is Not the Only Fruit

Many people have heared about Wine - which describes itself as follows:

Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X and Unix.

Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available.

Less well-known, though is FreeDOS, which does something similar for MS-DOS. This project has been going for ages (there's a good history here), and now it seems almost done. Quite whether the world needs an MS-DOS clone is another matter, but it's good to see it reaching fruition.