http://www.osnews.com/story/14453/Microsoft_Exec_Calls_for_Calm_on_OSS_Site Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:46:50 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://osnews.com/thread?118860 http://osnews.com/thread?118860 I'd rather see things like their CIFS specifications. :-)

(And no, I don't want to see their source code, either) Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:18:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (rcsteiner) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118866 http://osnews.com/thread?118866 I see this as an excessive move and very bad taste from the OSS community. Turn it down a notch and listen to what others have to say. Microsoft was willing to share its lab info with the public which as the post above stated is a nice gesture. Try to work with them on the issues instead of flaming, you may not get this type of opportunity again. Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:27:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (TaterSalad) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118883 http://osnews.com/thread?118883 But when I comes to using FUD against us there is no holding back. All I see is Microsoft trying to get a advantage all the time, wonder why?. Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (SlackerJack) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118888 http://osnews.com/thread?118888 This is a giant load of ____. And TaterSalad is a perfect example of what they wanted.

They open up a site to non-regged users (unmoderated) something we all know you can't do unless your site is an island (anything linked from microsoft.com is no island). Then they blame the OSS community when people post rude things?

Why don't you tell us FOSS users dig porn because they use the internet and the internet has porn.


And they wonder why we're cynical about them. You're not stupid Microsoft, and we know it. Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:50:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ma_d) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118890 http://osnews.com/thread?118890 I agree - I think there needs to be a sea-change over all of Microsoft before anyone can trust them.

Isn't there a name or saying (probably many) for when someone presents a nice sharing smiley face and continues to smack you over the head and stab you in the back?

"[MS] man speak with forked tounge" is one that springs to mind. Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:51:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (d0nk3y) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118892 http://osnews.com/thread?118892 We did not just recently meet these people. We have had to deal with them for quite some time now.

This site is nothing more than cheap talk and pretty pictures. If MS wishes to be taken seriously, then actions are needed. ODF support or the release of Office formats would be an example.

If MS offers an olive branch in one hand, be sure to see what is in the other hand. I would check for the dagger. Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Sam Shazaam) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118894 http://osnews.com/thread?118894 Embrace, extend and extinguish

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace%2C_extend_and_extinguish Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:54:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (JustAnotherMacUser) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118899 http://osnews.com/thread?118899 [quote]I agree - I think there needs to be a sea-change over all of Microsoft before anyone can trust them.[/quote]

You wanna know when to trust Microsoft? NEVER! Most OSS people are smart enough to know that. Of course, some of them will trust companies like Novell, which is just as stupid as trusting Microsoft. In general, trusting any for-profit company is a really bad idea. These companies are like Terminators from the films of the same name; they really have no moral consience at all. Whether they are on your side or not depends entirely on the situation at hand. They either help you or stab you in the back, depending on their mission. And this goes for ALL of them - not just some. Thu, 27 Apr 2006 22:02:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (WorknMan) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118917 http://osnews.com/thread?118917 They put fire at the powder and extinguishe it with a water glass Thu, 27 Apr 2006 22:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Manuel FLURY) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118919 http://osnews.com/thread?118919 You simply can't reason with FOSS zealots.Browser: ELinks/0.11.1 (textmode; FreeBSD 6.1-RC1 i386; 113x48-3) Thu, 27 Apr 2006 23:01:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (eMagius) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118939 http://osnews.com/thread?118939 Microsoft has a long (20-year) history of screwing with its competition, and Linux has been singled out by Microsoft as its major competitor a number of times.

Is there any wonder that there is little trust in Microsoft among FOSS fans?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...Browser: Links (0.99; OS/2 1 i386; 80x33) Thu, 27 Apr 2006 23:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (rcsteiner) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118959 http://osnews.com/thread?118959 "Is there any wonder that there is little trust in Microsoft among FOSS fans?"

I have to wonder, after 10 years of fighting, why did the Trojans all of a sudden trust the Greeks, and take the horse into Troy? There was NO REASON to trust the Greeks, and every reason to suspect treachery.

It would be irrational to trust Microsoft in extending an "olive branch." The open source community should not act like Trojans, while Microsoft puts a Trojan on. Fri, 28 Apr 2006 01:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (rattaro) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118973 http://osnews.com/thread?118973 You simply can't reason with FOSS zealots.

I assume you didn't mean to troll, and meant "FOSS zealots" as opposed to normal "FOSS users" like myself and most of the other civilized community.

However, there is no valid reason to use "FOSS" in your statement, as just stating that you cannot reason with "zealots" (regardless of their software preferences) makes more sense without the nasty implications.

I certainly would not state that, "You cannot trust [insert racial background here] theives". The extra specification of race clouds the issue, and changes the tone of the statement completely, doesn't it? Fri, 28 Apr 2006 01:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (markjensen) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118987 http://osnews.com/thread?118987 It's become awfully fashionable to post a FOSS browser user agent while dissing FOSS on this site.
Not to challenge your honesty, or your massochism in using elinks as your daily browser, but you can simply find those strings on wikipedia and copy/paste. Fri, 28 Apr 2006 03:50:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ma_d) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118995 http://osnews.com/thread?118995 I really don't understand this whole "us" verses "them" mentality. On both sides, loose the attitude and perhaps some meaningful progress might be made.

As far as getting an advantage all the time.. isn't this obvious? It's the nature competition and the Linux community is far from innocent in this regard. Fri, 28 Apr 2006 04:27:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (flanque) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?118996 http://osnews.com/thread?118996 I think you're over simplifying things. One only has to look at the community and humanity driven projects and/or charities that Microsoft (and Bill Gates) are involved in to see that morals do exist at Microsoft.

I guess the reality is that no matter how much good Microsoft tries to do, there will always be people who will focus entirely on the negative. Fri, 28 Apr 2006 04:34:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (flanque) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?119011 http://osnews.com/thread?119011 "Try to work with them on the issues instead of flaming, you may not get this type of opportunity again."

What opportunity? Fri, 28 Apr 2006 06:13:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Soulbender) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?119012 http://osnews.com/thread?119012 "One only has to look at the community and humanity driven projects and/or charities that Microsoft (and Bill Gates) are involved in to see that morals do exist at Microsoft."

You are confusing the man with the company. Fri, 28 Apr 2006 06:17:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Soulbender) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?119014 http://osnews.com/thread?119014 Not at all, all this shows is that Bill Gates has morals, and his wife too.... not Microsoft. Fri, 28 Apr 2006 06:22:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (raver31) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?119019 http://osnews.com/thread?119019 yeah, but the Greeks made them a nice horse, of course the people of Troy would trust a big wooden Greek horsey.

but also, there is a thing called battle wearyness. The greeks would also have been betting the people of Troy would have accepted any peace offering.

Same as Microsoft is expecting OSS people to accept a peace offering, except, lessons have been learnt from past Microsoft deals.Edited 2006-04-28 06:45 Fri, 28 Apr 2006 06:29:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (raver31) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?119021 http://osnews.com/thread?119021 But the organisation donates money and is engaged in other activities too.

There's the Microsoft Open License Charity, advice on avoiding online scams, information for parents about protecting your child's safety online, the donation of financial and technological resources to the relief of the Pakistan and Guatemala disaster and more.

For instance they donated $41m in cash and technology to NetHope, $11m of the same to Hurrican Katrina, more to the Tsnuami disaster and so on.

Have a read of http://www.microsoft.com/citizenship/giving/

Seems the organisation does actually give back to the global community. Fri, 28 Apr 2006 06:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (flanque) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?119030 http://osnews.com/thread?119030 Everybody knows that you can send messages *to* port 25 but if you want something in return you need port 110 too.

Imho, that pretty much sums it up... so far Microsoft have been a read-only "participant" in the OSS community. They accepted code from the open source community (BSD code for early sockets and libgif from esr and god knows that else) but they are not giving anything back. Basically their "shared source" licenses are vaporware/FUD, it does not give you any actual freedom.

Let's see some GPL-compliant code (GPL, LGPL, BSD or similar) from MS. Until they provide that, all the talk about olive branches is just BS. Fri, 28 Apr 2006 07:38:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (mnem0) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?119036 http://osnews.com/thread?119036 Please, can't you see this is only propaganda? an exercise in public relations? what's a paltry 41 USD for Microsoft when they have cash put aside in the range of billions? Why not putting what they've taken away from the community on the scale? You've got to be realle naive to think a corporation that's indulged in all dirty tricks one could think of to get rid of its competitors could really have ethics, or moral, or anything resembling those.

Same goes for Port 25: it's only propaganda, a gesture meant to signify "see how good willing and open we are?", really addressed at the press and not at the FLOSS community.

I'd accept anything coming from Microsoft only when they'll accept the concept that they've got to compete on merits alone and will stop abusing of their monopoly. As the proverb says:

Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes

'nuff said.

rehdon Fri, 28 Apr 2006 09:16:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Rehdon) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?119037 http://osnews.com/thread?119037 It's called "Blood Money". Fri, 28 Apr 2006 09:49:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Soulbender) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?119062 http://osnews.com/thread?119062 But the organisation donates money and is engaged in other activities too

It better be, for taxes reduction.

There's the Microsoft Open License Charity, advice on avoiding online scams, information for parents about protecting your child's safety online, the donation of financial and technological resources to the relief of the Pakistan and Guatemala disaster and more.

Good, lots of people like me donate too.

For instance they donated $41m in cash and technology to NetHope, $11m of the same to Hurrican Katrina, more to the Tsnuami disaster and so on.

Now it becomes ridiculous. How much times my monthly salary does MS make in revenue monthly ? 1 million times ?
Excuse me if I would feel rather ashamed to be praised for giving $52 to charity, if I was at the same time having lawsuits for having stolen technologies of others, laughing at projects that want to offer $100 working PC to poor countries, helping companies that want to acquire things made by people sharing, claiming to be paid licenses to these very same poor countries you generously gave copies of your OS before (but only 1 year licenses), ...

Have a read of http://www.microsoft.com/citizenship/giving/
Seems the organisation does actually give back to the global community.

Seems to me buying a reputation still works for some people. Amazing ! Fri, 28 Apr 2006 13:23:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Ookaze) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?119064 http://osnews.com/thread?119064 I wouldn't cross the street to piss in their mouth if their teeth were on fire.
If you ever had the pleasure of competing with them head-on you wouldn't be so warm, friendly and ready to cozy up to their ass. Fri, 28 Apr 2006 13:35:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Sphinx) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?119088 http://osnews.com/thread?119088 Most valid point in this whole conversation. Problem is MS lusers suffer from a variant of, "Stockholm Syndrome", and get all defensive on behalf of their molestor/abuser. They are sick, very sick. The really sick ones are the, "gee they give to charity...", who have completely lost their grasp on the big picture and start romanticizing the sick deviant abusing them is actually doing them some kind of favor. Fri, 28 Apr 2006 14:37:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Sphinx) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?119130 http://osnews.com/thread?119130 Here's an article and a bunch of comments about a web site, but nobody gives the URL. I hadn't seen it, or maybe I didn't pay attention. Anyway, here it is:
http://port25.technet.com/default.aspx Fri, 28 Apr 2006 15:37:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (KenJackson) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?119207 http://osnews.com/thread?119207 http://port25.technet.com/archive/2006/04/27/2287.aspx

Interesting part about that is that it doesn't always work. I tried the whole dd thing on a partition with an older Win2k install.... Yea, it wouldn't boot when I put the image onto a different disk, got all sorts of strange errors about missing important files and such.
I think it was ntfs that had been converted from fat32.

The way he described g4u sounds like what dd does. Fri, 28 Apr 2006 18:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ma_d) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?119306 http://osnews.com/thread?119306 I don't know about your country but in mine personal donations to charities by individuals over $2 are tax deductible. That doesn't degate the fact that someone gave, nor does it negate that microsoft gave a heck of a lot of money when they didn't have to.

If the information is correct they're one of the top three corporate donators. I guess if I follow that line of thought every donating corporate are suspiciously doing it only for taxation.

Give me a break. Believe it or not people, corporations are capable of "caring".

It doesn't matter how much good Microsoft does, there'll always be people out there who will bash them just because. Fri, 28 Apr 2006 23:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (flanque) Comments