4 ms·

Microsoft: We were wrong about open source, but luckily you can change

19 points by tech-historian 6y ago

fanatic2pope 6y ago
Makes you wonder what they're wrong about today.
- tech-historian 6y ago
  Well said.
- afiori 6y ago
  If anything this show that they are open to admit mistakes. it was clear to everybody that they realized years ago that their previous "Linux is cancer" was wrong. this admission changes nothing in that regard. to me this only says that they aren't (anymore) sour about having bet on the losing horse.
  - boomboomsubban 6y ago
    Balmer still says he was right to call it a cancer in 2000, and that they made a ton of money in that fight. Just his position has now shifted Smith just says they were on the wrong side of history. To me, both sound like "now we can make money with free software."
    - afiori 6y ago
      In a sense that is what you would expect... It is consistent for Ballmer to claim that it was the wrong side of history and that they made the right choice at the time. The fact that they lost on their side does not mean they would have surely won had they joined open source sooner. It is conceivable that they would have poisoned the ecosystem and delayed the community by years. Microsoft is not Mozilla, of course they think they can make money with OSS, the criticism should either be that they took a long time to realize or that they might be abusing OSS. In the article they say that the vision/estimations they had for the future of OSS was wrong, nothing more nothing less.
- squarefoot 6y ago
  Rather than right or wrong, it simply doesn't fit their agenda anymore. They surely couldn't continue bashing something they planned to transform in a product of theirs. You don't have to become platinum member of the Linux Foundation to contribute code; you do that to put a huge foot in the command center door.
detaro 6y ago
discussion yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23214548 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23214548
simonblack 6y ago
SOP for Microsoft: EMBRACE, Extend, Extinguish. On the other hand it could be: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

fanatic2pope 6y ago

Makes you wonder what they're wrong about today.

tech-historian 6y ago
Well said.
afiori 6y ago
If anything this show that they are open to admit mistakes. it was clear to everybody that they realized years ago that their previous "Linux is cancer" was wrong. this admission changes nothing in that regard. to me this only says that they aren't (anymore) sour about having bet on the losing horse.
- boomboomsubban 6y ago
  Balmer still says he was right to call it a cancer in 2000, and that they made a ton of money in that fight. Just his position has now shifted Smith just says they were on the wrong side of history. To me, both sound like "now we can make money with free software."
  - afiori 6y ago
    In a sense that is what you would expect... It is consistent for Ballmer to claim that it was the wrong side of history and that they made the right choice at the time. The fact that they lost on their side does not mean they would have surely won had they joined open source sooner. It is conceivable that they would have poisoned the ecosystem and delayed the community by years. Microsoft is not Mozilla, of course they think they can make money with OSS, the criticism should either be that they took a long time to realize or that they might be abusing OSS. In the article they say that the vision/estimations they had for the future of OSS was wrong, nothing more nothing less.
squarefoot 6y ago
Rather than right or wrong, it simply doesn't fit their agenda anymore. They surely couldn't continue bashing something they planned to transform in a product of theirs. You don't have to become platinum member of the Linux Foundation to contribute code; you do that to put a huge foot in the command center door.

detaro 6y ago

discussion yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23214548 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23214548

simonblack 6y ago

SOP for Microsoft: EMBRACE, Extend, Extinguish. On the other hand it could be: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."