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Microsoft is now the leading company for open source contributions on GitHub

businessinsider.com

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Re: Microsoft is now the leading company for open source contributions on GitHub

#21

Post by dx034 »

executesorder66 wrote: post #12

It seems to me like they are only open sourcing the products they wish more people are using, and not their actually useful products like MSOffice and the Windows OS. Edit: to be clear, I know it is in their best interest not to open source those products, because that's where most of their money comes from. But it really looks to me like the want to flood the market with random open source stuff, so that they seem m…

VSCode is a great contribution and in some areas a valid alternative to Visual Studio.

Re: Microsoft is now the leading company for open source contributions on GitHub

#22

Post by rck404 »

executesorder66 wrote: post #12

It seems to me like they are only open sourcing the products they wish more people are using, and not their actually useful products like MSOffice and the Windows OS. Edit: to be clear, I know it is in their best interest not to open source those products, because that's where most of their money comes from. But it really looks to me like the want to flood the market with random open source stuff, so that they seem m…

.NET Core is a hugely useful OSS project, only suprassed by another of theirs called "VS Code". I use it on day to day basis.

Re: Microsoft is now the leading company for open source contributions on GitHub

#23

Post by 0xFFC »

executesorder66 wrote: post #12

It seems to me like they are only open sourcing the products they wish more people are using, and not their actually useful products like MSOffice and the Windows OS. Edit: to be clear, I know it is in their best interest not to open source those products, because that's where most of their money comes from. But it really looks to me like the want to flood the market with random open source stuff, so that they seem m…

And how is it different than other companies like Google?

Re: Microsoft is now the leading company for open source contributions on GitHub

#24

Post by vthallam »

Microsoft is definitely trying to change its perception among the people, from hardcore closed box to trying to be the typical silicon valley company which opensources time to time to entice engineers working for them and yeah, greater good of the community.

But, as you see if you add Angular and Google's contributions, Google leads the list by a margin. So this looks more like a PR exercise and since when did we start taking BI articles on tech seriously(no offence to any readers).

Re: Microsoft is now the leading company for open source contributions on GitHub

#26

Post by hjek »

douche wrote: post #19
chha wrote: post #2

This is quite an improvement from the olden days when a certain Microsoft executive described the GPL as a cancer, and open source in general as a thing to avoid

If you're trying to write commercial software and make money off of it, the GPL is a cancer. MIT or the MS-PL is much more practical.

"Many people believe that the spirit of the GNU Project is that you should not charge money for distributing copies of software, or that you should charge as little as possible-just enough to cover the cost. This is a misunderstanding.

Actually, we encourage people who redistribute free software to charge as much as they wish or can. If a license does not permit users to make copies and sell them, it is a nonfree license. If this seems surprising to you, please read on."

from http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html

Re: Microsoft is now the leading company for open source contributions on GitHub

#27

Post by syshum »

douche wrote: post #19
chha wrote: post #2

This is quite an improvement from the olden days when a certain Microsoft executive described the GPL as a cancer, and open source in general as a thing to avoid

If you're trying to write commercial software and make money off of it, the GPL is a cancer. MIT or the MS-PL is much more practical.

To translate

if you are attempting to exploit other peoples code with out giving anything back to the people that created the code then GPL is a cancer

>MIT or the MS-PL is much more practical.

This depends on the project

I normally license my libraries, code I intend to be included in other software under BSD or MIT, but full developed software that is intended to be used as is gets GPL.

Re: Microsoft is now the leading company for open source contributions on GitHub

#28

Post by bad_user »

jdmoreira wrote: post #5

When I was a script kiddie back in the mid nineties Microsoft was this evil corporate empire that all the linux kids hated. Now I'm in my mid 30s and I respect them a lot and would definitely work for them. I guess we both have changed.

I'm not sure what changed about them. Do you think that dumping some code on GitHub is enough? I disagree.

"Linux kids" hated Microsoft because of their dirty tactics, exemplified for example in the "Halloween documents" [1], which shows among other things how they sponsored the SCO lawsuits against Linux. "Linux kids" also hated Microsoft for how they always tried to subvert open standards, like for example the Open Document Format (ODF). "Linux kids" also hated how Microsoft tried to push people towards DRM and Trusted Computing.

If they changed, that would mean they no longer engage in such tactics, right?

Yet Microsoft constantly engages in racketeering practices against Android phone makers and against Linux, with their huge patents portfolio, turning into genuine patent trolls. They make more money from Android than from their Windows Phone. They are also coercing computer makers to install Windows on computers, threatening with patents that allegedly cover Linux. If you can't innovate, litigate, right? And on open standards Microsoft is still engaged in subverting ODF, forcing governments that want open formats to accept OOXML as an alternative. And on Trusted Computing, well, they weren't the ones popularizing it, Apple takes the credit for that one, but they surely benefit from it now ;-)

Oh, and the often cited article by Scott Hanselman, titled "Microsoft killed my Pappy", doesn't mention these problems. Convenient, but it feels like a slap in the face.

Yet indeed, Microsoft did change. The Microsoft I know would have never tricked users in giving away their privacy by dark patterns [2]. And I can recognize they now have a wonderful PR department, otherwise this "change" nonsense wouldn't have flied without one.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents

[2] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/08/windows-10-microsoft-b...

Re: Microsoft is now the leading company for open source contributions on GitHub

#29

Post by rck404 »

GPL and Open Source are still a cancer purely from Business perspective especially on a short term perspective. This is exactly Steve Ballmer too, he is a business guy running a tech organization. He generated huge profits. Satya Nadella is a technical guy, who had seen the benefits of OSS tools, languages and platforms to know how they impact both the developer mindshare & long-term company perspective

Re: Microsoft is now the leading company for open source contributions on GitHub

#30

Post by crdoconnor »

aries1980 wrote: post #8

AFAIK Angular is part of Google. But a quite decent improvement from the era when the company bribed government officials to purchase bulk licences for pupils and govn't, distorting the job market. This is a less harmful Microsoft than it was 5-10-20 years ago.

>But a quite decent improvement from the era when the company bribed government officials to purchase bulk licences for pupils and govn't, distorting the job market

IIRC they're still doing that. In India I think?

>This is a less harmful Microsoft than it was 5-10-20 years ago.

The key to that is Microsoft being far less powerful than it was 5-10 years ago. Where MS can throw it's weight around, it still does.

The aftermath of the DOJ case is probably as much as responsible for that as the competition which ended up marginalizing them.

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