06.07.08

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Microsoft Knows Open Source Better Than All of Us

Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 3:28 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Money buys perceptions

The 'theft' continues. Dare we even tell Microsoft what "open source" is about? Well, after all, Microsoft is King of SourceForge (finally sharing the crown a little, with doubt still hanging). You are now required to know that open source boils down to only a development methodology and, as SourceForge indicates, programming tools like Visual Studio are available for the job.

Matt Asay finally unleashes a good post that challenges Microsoft to stop faking open source.

Yet as Sandcastle demonstrates, Microsoft still has a long ways to go before it demonstrates that it understands and is willing to stand behind the obligations of open source. The Sandcastle project went live on January 8. Several months later, it still isn’t providing source code, a key tenet of the CodePlex hosting requirements

[...]

Microsoft built CodePlex. It can do with it what it wants. But what it can’t do is borrow the term “open source” for marketing purposes and then fail to live up to the Open Source Definition. I thought the company understood that. Sandcastle makes me wonder….

So, Microsoft, your options are clear: 1) Request the site owner to provide source code or 2) Properly label CodePlex as a code repository, but not necessarily as an open-source code repository.

Good post from Asay. Be careful, however, because while he currently rebuts Jason Matusow [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] on the “open source in government” question you can also see him defending Matusow in this comments section**. Further to the latest brainwash from Jason Matusow, there’s this excellent new piece from MTG:

Mr. Matusow, South Africa and the Microsoft brainwasher

[...]

But Jason, reread your post, you’re the one who framed the debate around platform and the Linux vs. Windows opposition. Everybody knows that FOSS is much more than that.

And also please stop implicitly equating FOSS to development methodology.

In a way, it’s rather amusing to see how Microsoft strives to become the Master of Open Source (or “open source hero”), later expecting to tell us what to think. It’s already intruding quite a few consortia. █

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** Matt Asay’s friend, Jason Matusow, is from Microsoft. There is hardly an excuse for defending him. Some things are virtually irreparable.

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A Single Comment

Bob said,

June 8, 2008 at 3:55 am

You are confused to think that open source is intended to bring freedom. Open Source has never been about freedom. Free software. Open source. If it’s the same software, does it matter which name you use? Yes, because different words convey different ideas. While a free program by any other name would give you the same freedom today, establishing freedom in a lasting way depends above all on teaching people to value freedom. If you want to help do this, it is essential to speak about “free software.”

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html