Wow fellows! It seems that Microsoft really wants India. As the Economic Times article, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/comp/default? (linked from Slashdot) points out, they are going to disclose code of Windows to a certain goverment body. According to some, this could be fatal to the rise of Linux. However, I dont think so. The secret of the astronomic rise of Linux, IMO, lies in the free spirit it fosters among developers which enables each and everyone of them to make meaningul contributions to the code (surely M$ wont allow that). This helps retain the zeal among the developers which also explains why the relatively fewer bugs OSS get patched relatively quickly. Anyways, I am rambling OT. I am anxious to hear what you guys think about it. Will the FSF-India write another letter to the govt?
IMO sharing source with one or two government agencies is a clever marketing plan. It remains to be seen what kind of agreement MS reaches with GOI becoz AFAIK MS's Shared Source vision is that company whome they share their source with, would not be able to change the source code even if one wants to. So if some vulnerability/customization is to be taken care of, GOI may still have to first approach MS.
--- Bhargav Bhatt bhargav.bhatt@columbia.edu wrote:
- LUG meet on 12 Jan. 2003 @ VJTI
Wow fellows! It seems that Microsoft really wants India. As the Economic Times article,
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/comp/default?
(linked from Slashdot) points out, they are going to disclose code of Windows to a certain goverment body. According to some, this could be fatal to the rise of Linux. However, I dont think so. The secret of the astronomic rise of Linux, IMO, lies in the free spirit it fosters among developers which enables each and everyone of them to make meaningul contributions to the code (surely M$ wont allow that). This helps retain the zeal among the developers which also explains why the relatively fewer bugs OSS get patched relatively quickly. Anyways, I am rambling OT. I am anxious to hear what you guys think about it. Will the FSF-India write another letter to the govt?
-- Bhargav Bhatt, Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University. -- "If English was commutative, we could all talk like Yoda." - Anonymous.
-- _______________________________________________
===== rgds, Aditya N. ======= Graduate Student, Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, Auburn University, Auburn AL, USA.
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- LUG meet on 12 Jan. 2003 @ VJTI
IMO sharing source with one or two government agencies is a clever marketing plan. It remains to be seen what kind of agreement MS reaches with GOI becoz AFAIK MS's Shared Source vision is that company whome they share their source with, would not be able to change the source code even if one wants to. So if some vulnerability/customization is to be taken care of, GOI may still have to first approach MS.
IMO sharing source with one or two government agencies is a clever marketing plan. It remains to be seen what kind of agreement MS reaches with GOI becoz AFAIK MS's Shared Source vision is that company whome they share their source with, would not be able to change the source code even if one wants to. So if some vulnerability/customization is to be taken care of, GOI may still have to first approach MS.
From my perspective, M$ made a bad move:
- This move tells that code-sharing is important for any serious
mission-critical work 2. M$ really needs business in India 3. M$ is afraid of Linux in India 4. M$ wasn't really serious as of now
I wonder if the Government can really see whats happening here. Even if it does will it ever make the right decision or bow to corruption?
Sorry for this mail going out in John Hamilton's name. The opinions were mine (Amol Hatwar's).
Note to self: Sharing your lappy with someone is a bad deed.
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aditya newalkar -
Amol Hatwar -
Bhargav Bhatt -
John Hamilton