bruisedquasar - 2005-03-29 1:01 PM
MS may be trying to eat Linux and destroy the entire Open Source, Free Software movement by way of a multimillion dollar "consultant" contract it signed recently with Linux creator Linus Torvalds. He is in his 50s and may be suseptable to some big bucks, after all these years in the trenches. Will aging Torvalds sell out?
...Of course, this is all just my humble opinion.
--Bruised
errr Bruised, last I checked, Linus is in mid 30s, specifically 35 yrs old this year
(2005
).
http://www.thocp.net/biographies/torvalds_linus.html
Care to share where you got your info that he has aged by another 15yrs?
Actually, even if Linus sells out
(which I think is a good thing!
) the linux/Open Source movement will still continue. That's the whole crux of the matter isn't it? That GPLed code is not hinging on *one* person or body or company. So the legions of coders
(as pro-OpenSource articles like to highlight
) will just pick it up from there. After all, if he can get a few millions from billg, why not? I doubt he will be signing a life-contract nor will billg offer such a thingie. So grab a few mils, and couple of years down the road, if it does not work out, he can finance the opensource movement with real $$.
I think it is a good thing if MS adopts open sourcing. To a certain extent, part of the system code is *already* "open sourced". The partial source code for the system libraries for Windows is available as part of the installation of Visual C++, and for most part, when I was doing development work in the past, I would have the source installed, so that when I went into debug mode, I would sometimes choose to step into the system code to have a better idea of what went wrong. Granted, it is not exactly open-source, 'cos you are not allowed to modify the code, nor would modifying it make a diff, since you do not have the full code to compile new builds of the system libraries.
From my experience with my clients, most of them do not even know of this, or even want to think of looking at the system code. I mean, honest to heart, how many of us enjoy stepping through our colleague's code? And here we are talking about C/C++ code. I know that I for one would enjoy it
(ok, I'm geek!
) as it also means learning more about coding practises
(and really crazy semantics!
) but most developers, especially business apps developers, cannot really be bothered to do so. They just want the system to work. And they do not really want to know how it works.
Granted, even though there are those who will not ever want to dig into system code, open sourcing can still have its up side for windows/MS. For one, it could mean that developers will be able to strip out unwanted modules in Windows and compile customised builds for themselves or corporate-wide builds that are optimized for their specific usage.
I guess, MS will not move their butt unless there is monetary incentive to do so ... that, or if there is negative monetary incentive for not doing so.