Microsoft and Openness: Can It Really Commit?

[Rob]

Microsoft's announcement last week that it was forming a wholly owned subsidiary dedicated to forging stronger ties with the open source world took more than a few observers by surprise.After all, this is the company that once called open source software a “cancer,” that has asserted repeated patent claims against Linux and other open source software, and that has resorted to a multiplicity of scare tactics to drive potential users away from open source alternatives to its own products.... Full story here.

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[psufootball]

Can't really blame them can ya... when there are free open-source alternatives that would get big if only more people knew about them... they're going to do anything they can to put them down. Too bad Microsoft is known for being disconnected with their users and didn't realize that many people <3 the idea of open-source and is now trying to take it back.

[Victor Leigh]

I think Microsoft is up to something sinister. Maybe they think they can get into the open source market, dominate it and bring it under their control.

[scotty]

I am not sure it will work very well. I hope it can, but I feel like Windows is too popular, that any open source work, could lead to the introduction of vulnerabilities, and not security.