(Tempted not to forward to list as starting to get OT)
> without problems of copyright/patents (or for that matter, MS employees
> plenty of people from other companies like Dave Cutler
rumour has it that there were indeed problems with DEC and
ideas and even source code. Dave Cutler is an ex-VMS person, I believe.
There's the rumour that alpha support in NT lasted as long as it did
because of this.
A couple of Compaq people at dinner after SLUG mentioned
how at one stage they were co-operating with MS on the 64 bit port,
until they got the impression that MS people wanted more and more
generic information about handling 64 bit, rather than
targetting the alpha.
There have been several furious fights about technical and
sales people.
One aspect of source code is that the last 10% takes 90% of the time.
Hence all the quirks, last minute fixes and horribleisms are a valuable
commodity.
It is interesting the public reaction to this leak. I sense a great
indifference (i.e. in mainstream media response, e.g. SMH). I don't reckon
this is due to sophisticated reasoning on the publics / journalists
part, but the opposite.
Most people have no sense of what source code and binary code means.
ObLinux:
Microsoft faces a challenge in dealing with Linux.
The challenge is cultural. How do they respond to the process
that is Free Software?
I feel that ignoring, bypassing, won't work. Assimilation won't
work on a process, without causing internal change (loss of control
from the top).
The immediate problems include:
* technologically literate people are not regarding MS as having
a leadership, or even (to some extent) relevant role. Perhaps C# and .NET
are to some extent a response to this.
* the base of applications and systems is very narrow. (Office
desktop systems). Growth in these areas is hard, and could well contract,
especially in dollar terms.
* new areas of growth are hard to find without canabalising traditional
profit areas, or without introducing seriously incompatabilities with
older systems. The Xbox is one attempt, but there is no serious
work on an ultra low cost PC (because licensing fees would be the first
thing to look at).
Jamie
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