[TriLUG] gates and ballmer on open source

Paul D. Boyle boyle at laue.chem.ncsu.edu
Thu Nov 8 15:40:30 EST 2001


Paul Jones shared:
> >From the Microsoft stockholders meeting.
> http://www.microsoft.com/msft/speech/smeet/shareholdermeeting01.htm
> During question time, a wise questioner asks:
> 
> QUESTION: It appears to me that the open source movement is gaining
> momentum, and as I understand it the key to success of a software product
> involves efficiently building an ecosystem of developers and users,
> resellers, and so forth. Doesn't the open source model a more efficient
> paradigm for building such a community around your products, and isn't
> perhaps Microsoft maybe on the wrong side of that trend of long-term?
> 
> MR. GATES: Let me start out, really the reason that you see open source
> there at all is because we came in and said there should be a platform
> that's identical with millions and millions of machines ...

This guy is so deluded.  Do you think he really believes what he
is saying?  My understanding is that Open Source was a softening
(maybe a broadening?) of the FSF/GPL philosophy, which in turn came
had strong roots in the Unix community.  (e.g. GNU = GNU is Not Unix).
Microsoft did their best to ignore open software and the internet until
a few years ago when they couldn't possibly ignore it anymore.

Argh.

Paul

-- 
Paul D. Boyle			    |	boyle at laue.chem.ncsu.edu
Director, X-ray Structural Facility |	phone: (919) 515-7362
Department of Chemistry - Box 8204  |	FAX:   (919) 515-5079
North Carolina State University     | 
Raleigh, NC, 27695-8204
http://laue.chem.ncsu.edu/web/xray.welcome.html



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