[Wolves] Microsofts sudden release of GPL code

[David Goodwin]

> I think its all a PR stunt as you say or rather 'Hedging their bets' I
> do think they want to clean up their act and of course at the next court
> case they may be able to call Linus Torvalds as a character witness once
> they've built up enough brownie points ;-)
> 

I think they've just released the code as :

a) They want to support Linux guests on some virtualisation thing
they're doing. Obviously the HOST Will be Windows. I assume the Linux
guests need patching slightly to improve performance (otherwise no one
would use the MS product as it would be x% slower than e.g. vmware)

b) The GPL requires them to make the code available (at least to users
of the software)

c) It's easier for them in the longer term if their code is merged
into the kernel, as then someone else may maintain it - rather than
them.

d) Yes, it does get [some] good PR - but look at e.g. TomTom + VFAT. I
don't think it signifies any sea change in opinion from Microsoft.
MSLinux is still a far, far way away.

> MS are not silly and imv have the right to protect their product, I
> doubt they wish to 'destroy Linux', which is the current scare tactic
> doing the community rounds, they've probably wised up that Linux is not
> going to go away and is now starting to have an impact on their
> business. 

As long as they keep innovating and don't stand still, they'll
maintain their market share. Yes, Linux will have some impact on their
business, but it's minimal (I thought most Linux users were
historically Unix users etc) - they still have 90%+ of the desktop
market and I'd assume at least 50% of the server market.

> By submitting stuff, funding the Apache Project and numerous
> other OSS pies they are dipping their toes in I presume they feel this
> will place them in a better position in a few years time when they
> release something that will probably have the community up in arms.
> 

Again - they've only funded e.g. PHP to further their own aims - i.e.
PHP now runs a lot quicker on Windows than it used to, and the 
justification of having to have a Linux server to run PHP on is now 
void - as Windows is as quick, if not quicker. 
( I suspect they've funded Apache for the same reasons (to remove problems 
which affected Apache on Windows etc).... but I don't really know. )

David.
-- 
David Goodwin 

[ david at codepoets dot co dot uk ]
[ http://www.codepoets.co.uk       ]
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