[cumbria_lug] Microsoft open source?

[Roger Cope]

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Saunders [mailto:mike at aster.fsnet.co.uk] 
>
> Makes me suspicious of what their *real* motivations are.

Nothing. They're just testing the water with a trivial app -- trying to find
out how the community and media will react. It's not the start of anything
big, nor is it Microsoft "playing friendly" with the open source community.

Microsoft hates open source. The monopolistic giant is (indirectly) funding
a small company to severely damage Linux, the GPL and open source in every
way possible, and continues to spread lies and deception. Chucking a small
tool onto SourceForge doesn't fix that :-)

M

--

I think Mike is a bit harsh. Microsoft is a huge corporation and I'm sure
that many individuals and departments within it understand and appreciate
what open source is about. Much the same used to be said about Microsoft's
work with standards boards but times have changed and a fair proportion of
Microsoft's standards work is done in good faith now.

Roger