NationStates Jolt Archive

This is no bashing thread. I really have no idea what to think. Apparently MS begins releasing some minor programs under free licenses[1][2]. Parts of the SFU are even GPLed[3]. While I am dodging flying pigs, I keep wondering what that means for the future of MS. Will we maybe see an OpenWindows? :) What do you think this will mean for the corporation?

[1] http://www.codeplex.com/xmlnotepad
[2] http://www.heise.de/newsticker/result.xhtml?url=/newsticker/meldung/46318 (german)
[3] http://www.microsoft.com/technet/interopmigration/unix/sfu/sfucustm.mspx (search for GPL)

I really have no idea what to think.

Obviously Microsoft believes that releasing certain things under free licences will benefit them.

Yeah, exactly... that is quite a distance from the 'GPL is like cancer' quotes a few years earlier.

Yeah, exactly... that is quite a distance from the 'GPL is like cancer' quotes a few years earlier.

Well, they're not politicians - they don't have any kind of ideology to stick to, they just do whatever they think will make money.

The thing that people lose sight of is that once you have as much money as Microsoft does, you don't NEED to milk every dollar. It doesn't harm your interest to offer a convenience to people who are already your customers. Call it goodwill, if you'd like - it isn't bad for business.

The thing that people lose sight of is that once you have as much money as Microsoft does, you don't NEED to milk every dollar. It doesn't harm your interest to offer a convenience to people who are already your customers. Call it goodwill, if you'd like - it isn't bad for business.

If it's not bad for business, then it makes them money. It's like if you lower prices to increase sales. You're not willingly losing money - you're actually getting more.

Recently, I needed a typesetting program. A little research suggested an Adobe product (pagemaker or indesign) was the best, but MS publisher was also an option.
That I wasn't going to pay hundreds of dollars to typeset a short book goes without saying. I was just about to fire up eDonkey and ... *cough* er, you know ... and it struck me "Why 'steal' when I don't have to?"

I searched for "free open-source typeset page layout" and found scribus. Although still in beta, it worked fine for my simple layout job (not a glossy magazine, after all, just a whole lot of text with chapters and page numbers.) I only wasted an hour or so learning to use it, it didn't cost me a cent, and if the book is ever published we won't get sued for using software we didn't pay for.

The moral of this story is that every mainstream product MS offers has a free and open-source alternative, and these are rapidly improving. If MS don't put some decent products free and open-source (eg GPL) they face the prospect of a growing band of PC users who have no experience at all of MS products, and like some Mac fanatics, can recite chapter and verse of everything wrong with MS and it's products, but have never actually used a MS product to know that they can be pretty decent.

A lot of the big guns are getting involved in Open Source. MS, IBM, Sun, to name a few.

They’ve got no option not to; just looked at what happened to the music industry when it tried to ignore and bring to a halt community-based, cheap (or free) distribution of their products and services.

Don't expect the Windows core code to go GPL though :)

Apparently MS begins releasing some minor programs under free licensesYou mean like Microsoft Reader, one of the handiest programs ever written?

You mean like Microsoft Reader, one of the handiest programs ever written?

I find a tone handier in my every day life

You mean like Microsoft Reader, one of the handiest programs ever written?

What does it do? Wikipedia makes it sound something like a pdf reader.

Since we're talking about Microsoft...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/05/chair_chucking/

:eek:

Since we're talking about Microsoft...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/05/chair_chucking/

:eek:

And people think Gates was a dick. I cannot wait until its Ballmer and Jobs battling it out to see who gets to bend over the collective world populace. :rolleyes:

And people think Gates was a dick. I cannot wait until its Ballmer and Jobs battling it out to see who gets to bend over the collective world populace. :rolleyes:

Hoo boy, yes. Insanity!

What does it do? Wikipedia makes it sound something like a pdf reader.Sort of, yes. But unlike Adobe, it doesn't take fifty years to open and constantly hound you about updates. It's perfect for reading books, and there's plenty of sources of free classics.

And, of course, you can buy more recent books.

Sort of, yes. But unlike Adobe, it doesn't take fifty years to open and constantly hound you about updates. It's perfect for reading books, and there's plenty of sources of free classics.

And, of course, you can buy more recent books.Adobe takes much to long to download. I haven't used the bloody thing in almost a year. Why bother with it? KDE comes with kpdf and Gnome has evince.