4 ms·

That isn't entirely true. While "giving back" may not be the norm, there are other relevant details to consider: http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/04/linux

That isn't entirely true. While "giving back" may not be the norm, there are other relevant details to consider: http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/04/linux-kernel-in-2011-15-million-total-lines-of-code-and-microsoft-is-a-top-contributor/ http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/04/linux-kernel-in-2011... Legal departments also get in the way of contributions to open source. "We don't want any of our proprietary code to end up in that library" is a common theme found among legal teams that paint with too-broad of brushes. I am currently experiencing this.

smackfu 13y ago
Not to mention someone suing you because you infringed on their software patents, with source code proof.
hamburglar 13y ago
Not to mention Microsoft is terrified, and I mean terrified of any open source code accidentally getting copypasted into some Windows or Office. A team I worked on there had to indirectly use linux and there was literally one designated person who was allowed to have a linux machine, and the machine had to be set up by a contractor whose job it was to ensure it was scrubbed of any source code before being handed over to the one guy who was actually allowed to touch it. I swear, you could make the lawyers jump a mile by sneaking up behind them and whispering "GPL"