I'm sure that plenty of open source stuff gets used by Microsoft, they just keep it in their closed source projects and pretend that it was written by their own staff.
But yeah, you're totally right Matt. Traditionally Microsoft would always produce an equivalent piece of software themselves rather than adopt external software. This has been like Microsoft corporate policy since the beginning. If they don't think that they can/should be doing it themselves, then they just buy a company that can do it. However, we've recently reached a queer time with Microsoft. Microsoft's most concrete policies are slowly falling away. They've started committing to open source projects, they've dropped (or heavily reduced) their "don't break the web" motto focusing more on progress rather than supporting old bugs, they're dropped backwards compatibility of major OS iterations (as of Windows 7) and even Steve Balmer has admitted that Microsoft needs to be more like some of their competitors (he all but said Apple directly). There's no 100% guarantee that Microsoft wouldn't adopt Webkit. But I think with the effort that they have put into IE7 (and even more so IE8), they are most likely to continue along the current path of improving Trident (if it's even still called Trident as of IE8) and prove to the world that it is still a real competitor. We're also now likely to see Microsoft increase their commitment to IE as a product. With Firefox, Microsoft completely dismissed it's impact far longer than they should have, mostly through plain denial. They're not going to be so cavalier when it comes to Chrome. Google is already a threat to Microsoft in other areas (eg Search) and you can be sure that Microsoft have been keeping an eye on the future of the "Web OS". You combine that with the statistics on how many Windows users have Google Desktop Search and Google Toolbar installed and Microsoft must be starting to feel threatened about a very real competitor to IE. You can be sure that Microsoft are getting ready for one hell of a battle. Cheers, --------------------------------------------------- Keri Henare Web Designer/Developer [e] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [m] 021 874 552 [p] 09 889 2749 [w] www.pixelfusion.co.nz On 9/09/2008, at 12:25 AM, Matt Vickers wrote: > No offence, but I think you've completely missed my point. > > Yes, Microsoft might release the source code for some of their > projects, (though never under GPL/BSD licenses etc.), but that isn't > what I'm talking about. They might even host an open source > community for Microsoft developers to share code. Again, I'm not > talking about that. > > My point is that a piece of open source software that isn't written > by Microsoft developers will NEVER make it into a Microsoft product > put out by Microsoft the company. Microsoft will NEVER use Webkit: > it wasn't developed by them. If a piece of open source software > exists that Microsoft would like to use within their range of > products (e.g. Memcached), they either have to buy it outright or > reinvent it. > > However, I do concede that it looks like some BSD-licensed TCP/IP > code could have made it into NT, as others have pointed out. Thanks > for enlightening me ... controversial! :) > > M. > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] on behalf of Michael Adams > Sent: Mon 9/8/2008 9:05 p.m. > To: [email protected] > Subject: [phpug] Re: [OT] Google releases a new web browser > > > On Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:34:34 +1200 > Matt Vickers increased personal carbon footprint by exciting electrons > the world over with these memorable words: > >> >> Nice thought ... but it'll never happen. Microsoft has NEVER >> incorporated any open source toolkits or libraries into their >> products >> (I'm happy to be proven wrong on this point) > > http://www.codeplex.com/ > > ***QUOTE ***************** > About CodePlex > > CodePlex is Microsoft's open source project hosting web site. Start a > new project, join an existing one, or download software created by the > community. > ***END QUOTE ************* > > > -- > Michael > > All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things > shall > be well > > - Julian of Norwich 1342 - 1416 > > > > Scanned by Bizo Email Filter > > > > > > <winmail.dat> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
