Windows Semi-Open Source

[TwinVega]

http://www.wired.com/news/infostruct...,57221,00.html
Microsoft has agreed to share the source of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows CE and Windows Server 2003 with government agencies in hopes that they would not switch to cheaper, more reliable, and more secured OS'.

Sounds to me like a used car dealership: "No we can't go any lower, we would be losing money if we gave it to you at that price....oh wait!, don't leave, I'll talk to my manager and he *might* be able to get you it for that price....alright, they said it was okay, we'll sell it for that."

[converge]

I don't think this is anything to get too excited about.. it doesn't say that they are indeed handing the source tree over to the governments... it says it will share its source to help them build security tools / measures. This could mean anything from sharing code snippets, to answering questions about code specific if asked by the proper people

This looks like more of a PR move than anything consequential... especially with lindows/wine on their heels, they would have everything to lose by letting the opportunity for the source to be leaked, government agencies or not.

[blackwave]

c0n is correct, there are things that are said, and then there are things that are done... seeing m$ cooperate to where they would expose themselves fully would be something that would probably never get done no matter at what cost.

[TwinVega]

hence the subject "semi-open"

[blackwave]

i got a semi right here..

Originally posted by TwinVega
hence the subject "semi-open"

ah... the subject should have been "pseudo-open"

[simple3]

This is not really anything new. I have heard of them giving source to Universities for a while. This new endevour sounds a lot like their Shared Source program which started last November. They have already released source to a few governments, I think France is one of them. In the past Universities have been reluctant to take part in these programs due to the non-disclosure agreements that come with it. "You can look at our stuff, but you can't tell anyone anything you see." It's pretty pathetic. More information on exactly how pathetic it is http://www.opensource.org/advocacy/shared_source.php
http://www.opensource.org/docs/sharedsource.php
And the kicker: Halloween VII- a Microsoft memo about how much technological decision makers don't like how fishy this idea smells.

[dataworm]

Hum IS this Free As Beer or Free As speech? Oh well how can you say it's Open? Even Pseudo open...

[russ]

Originally posted by blackwave
c0n is correct, there are things that are said, and then there are things that are done... seeing m$ cooperate to where they would expose themselves fully would be something that would probably never get done no matter at what cost.

Who cares? Seriously? Who does? I can't think of any hacker bored to tears enough to sit down and go through 200 million + lines of code. And surely the govt doesn't have the budget to fund this type of work. So M$ releases the code and the govt takes it and says "thank you".... end of story. Nothing happens to the code. It sits there... forever.