4 ms·

its been 20 years, their strategy now is to incorporate open source into their product offering

nemo136 3mo ago
Yeah, and block as much as possible the possibility to include their cash cow (office) in open source: the desktop Microsoft Office apps are impossible to run under Linux without a VM, and the web versions are a PITA and lack many necessary features.
- samrus 3mo ago
  What i absolutely love is that this exact strategy is why coding agents dont work with proprietary tools. Open standards have so much context out in the open that any harness/agent can work effortlessly with it. But things like excel and word need manual integration which will be slow and painful and wont offer the same seamlessness for a feasible amount on effort. Its an amazing schadenfruede, and im revelling in it
AnthonyMouse 3mo ago
That strategy is over 20 years old: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguis...
- pjmlp 3mo ago
  In regards to FOSS, Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM and co, are much better at it than Microsoft has been.
  - ffsm8 3mo ago
    Arguably not, if they're still doing eee... Even vscode is just a shell again with most noteable extensions /language servers being proprietary again
    - pjmlp 3mo ago
      FAANG still wins out.
  - AnthonyMouse 3mo ago
    Are they? They extended DNS, LDAP and Kerberos to make Active Directory so that now every Microsoft-locked corporation is stuck using Microsoft as their internal DNS. They do the various things they do to get everyone stuck using their email instead of any other standard IMAP/SMTP/webmail provider. Azure is "somehow" one of the three major cloud providers.
    - pjmlp 3mo ago
      Yes, given how many FOSS projects change their licenses thanks to FAANG leeching, and walled garden platforms built on FOSS software.
      - AnthonyMouse 3mo ago
        Lots of projects started off with the BSD license instead of GPLv3/AGPL/etc. and then discovered what the consequences of that are, but those consequences haven't been hard to predict for a while now, since they're the reason those other licenses exist to begin with.
        pjmlp 3mo ago
        Which is why all big tech companies belong into the same basket, and not be idolatriased only because they happen to contribute to some FOSS project that helps their bottom line, have marketing toys for engineers or whatever.
        AnthonyMouse 3mo ago
        Contributing to FOSS projects because it helps their bottom line is the reason everybody does it. It's a good reason to do it. That's not the problem. The problem is when you try to establish barriers to the customer ever switching to a competitor. Microsoft isn't the only company that does that but they are obviously a company that always has and still does do that.
        3mo ago

Yeah, and block as much as possible the possibility to include their cash cow (office) in open source: the desktop Microsoft Office apps are impossible to run under Linux without a VM, and the web versions are a PITA and lack many necessary features.

samrus 3mo ago
What i absolutely love is that this exact strategy is why coding agents dont work with proprietary tools. Open standards have so much context out in the open that any harness/agent can work effortlessly with it. But things like excel and word need manual integration which will be slow and painful and wont offer the same seamlessness for a feasible amount on effort. Its an amazing schadenfruede, and im revelling in it

AnthonyMouse 3mo ago

That strategy is over 20 years old: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguis...

pjmlp 3mo ago
In regards to FOSS, Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM and co, are much better at it than Microsoft has been.
- ffsm8 3mo ago
  Arguably not, if they're still doing eee... Even vscode is just a shell again with most noteable extensions /language servers being proprietary again
  - pjmlp 3mo ago
    FAANG still wins out.
- AnthonyMouse 3mo ago
  Are they? They extended DNS, LDAP and Kerberos to make Active Directory so that now every Microsoft-locked corporation is stuck using Microsoft as their internal DNS. They do the various things they do to get everyone stuck using their email instead of any other standard IMAP/SMTP/webmail provider. Azure is "somehow" one of the three major cloud providers.
  - pjmlp 3mo ago
    Yes, given how many FOSS projects change their licenses thanks to FAANG leeching, and walled garden platforms built on FOSS software.
    - AnthonyMouse 3mo ago
      Lots of projects started off with the BSD license instead of GPLv3/AGPL/etc. and then discovered what the consequences of that are, but those consequences haven't been hard to predict for a while now, since they're the reason those other licenses exist to begin with.
      - pjmlp 3mo ago
        Which is why all big tech companies belong into the same basket, and not be idolatriased only because they happen to contribute to some FOSS project that helps their bottom line, have marketing toys for engineers or whatever.
        AnthonyMouse 3mo ago
        Contributing to FOSS projects because it helps their bottom line is the reason everybody does it. It's a good reason to do it. That's not the problem. The problem is when you try to establish barriers to the customer ever switching to a competitor. Microsoft isn't the only company that does that but they are obviously a company that always has and still does do that.
        3mo ago