Discussion on:

10 things the new Microsoft Open Technologies initiative needs to do

Giving opensource folks (legal) access to windows sources would be jumped upon by the reverse-engineerers developing ReactOS. This could hurt Microsoft in the jugular. Wine would be positive as stated in the article. So would the LUC (unified kernel) project which overlaps with both wine and reactos.

While all could help sales of microsoft software, the users of all three like their stuff for free.

Goodwill and positive name recognition are also business assets. With the big 'G' replacing the big 'I' and big 'M' (which remain nameless ) as the "evil empire," one can see this point in live action.

How about dropping the mysterious claims of patent infringment against Linux and Andriod? Or if they can't do that at least tell everyone what those are specifically?
Every Andriod Samsung device has an artificially inflated price becaues MS threatens Samsung with law suites over this supposed infringment.
If you can't do any of that MS, how about growing a pair and trying to challenge Andriod/Google directly?

The others probably will not. But I like the idea, and I'm glad they are out there. Hopefully someone from Microsoft will be reading it.

I see #10 as an example for #8.

I have a hard time seeing how [2-4,6,7] would add any value to Microsoft, so why would they want to do those things?

While #9 wouldn't offer in direct value-add either, it would cost them very little and would garner considerable goodwill and gratitude from the open source community.

ron

Well, then I will run Linux instead.

I think a lot of effort will go into open source projects developed in .NET (and other Microsoft technologies). It's so obviously good for MS creating a flourishing ecosystem.

Okay, I'll bite. Just once.

#1: MS Office being hit by G-Docs/LibreOffice. Office 2010's biggest competitor is Office 2007, O15's biggest competitor will be Office 2010. GoogleDocs & LibreOffice are the equivalent of an F117A blip on the radar. Just because I live in the desert doesn't mean that the whole world is a sandy place.

#2: That would be stupid. First, MySQL is owned by Oracle. I should stop right here, but there's more. Apache is great on Linux, IIS is great on Windows. If PHP is your thing, then it runs great on IIS. Don't know if they'll include PHP in Windows, but it surely is being added to Azure (along with Java and Node.js). A friend of mine put up a Joomla! site on Windows+PHP+SQL-Server-Express - it was his first time, he had a lot of concerns, but the client demanded it. To his surprise, even under load the performance was comparable to the hundreds of other Joomla! sites he had deployed. Time for some to come out of the dark ages folks.

#5: The API documentation is really good, not perfect, but among the best out there. In many languages too. Seems like reading comprehension or competency is the problem here. Do the same developers have access to the OSX or iOS code or the AWS code or the GAE code? Each OS or platform has it's own strengths and weaknesses, learn from the docs, others, and experience.

#6: They are. Do your homework.

#8: They are. Do your homework. I suppose they could do more.

#9: Persecution complex here? Just asking. Hardware developers aren't born with a hatred towards OSS, they need to see value in doing what you ask. Make a compelling case and convince them, then it will happen. If OSS developers want something, go earn it.

#10: Huh? Exchange ActiveSync protocol documentation is publicly available. Seems like a competency problem here if the OSS developers can't write a good enough implementation of the protocol. All the mobile phone hardware and OS folks have done it, is there anyone holding back the OSS developers?

If you got this far and your blood isn't boiling, contact me. I'm not a fan of OSS nor do I hate it. It's just one way of making code available to its end-users. It has its pros and cons, just like anything else. And, before you guys go off the deep end, I know plenty of developers/non-developers in OSS as well as proprietary source, working at startups to large enterprises. I really don't care if you believe it or not, it doesn't change any facts.

Bottom line is, if Jack and the rest of the OSS fans believe that OSS has finally arrived to the level of enterprises like Microsoft/Apple/Google, then demonstrate it with real code. Want respect, earn it. Want anything, earn it. It's the real world, nobody owes you nothing.

P.S. Jack's looking to stir the pot, he got it.

not a single saved soul to counter even one statement? really?