Microsoft may share source code in India

[Agent007]

This is fantastic news guys!!

 Microsoft Corp, which plans to invest $400 million in India, is considering sharing the closely guarded source code of its Windows platform with its Indian clients, a company official said on Monday.

The world's largest software company, facing challenges from the free, "open-source" Linux platform, may distribute the technology in India under its "Shared Source" programme.

Microsoft began the Shared Source Initiative last year in an effort to counter the image that it zealously guards its products.

The programme is running in more than 30 countries where the source code has been shared with software developers, governments and specific academic institutions.

"In line with this approach, Microsoft is constantly assessing key markets where this initiative would be best suited," Sanjiv Mathur, group marketing manager at Microsoft's Indian unit said in a statement.

"In India, too, we are currently evaluating the prospect of introducing this initiative," he said.

While the Shared Source plan has not yet arrived in India, part of the Windows CE code that runs in handheld devices is available to Indian developers, Mathur said.

Microsoft's statement on its Shared Source follows a four-day visit to India in November by Chairman Bill Gates who announced a three-year investment plan in the country.

India's Economic Times daily reported last Friday that Microsoft planned to share its code with a government agency.

Analysts view India's booming software industry, fast becoming one of the biggest in the world, as a key territory in the tussle between the Windows and the Linux operating systems.

Officials expect the number of local developers to grow to 1.3 million in four years from 400,000 now, which would make India home to more software programmers than any other country.

Unlike Microsoft, Linux's creators allow their system to be freely copied, used and modified. An increasing number of technology giants, such as International Business Machines, have switched to Linux.

India's cost-conscious market has seen growing corporate use of Linux while a debate is also raging on what platform state governments should use in their march towards e-governance.

http://www.rediff.com/money/2002/dec/16msn.htm

[voidmain]

Which part is fantastic?

[cahult]

quote:Originally posted by void main:
Which part is fantastic?

That there are more than 1 billion indians.        

or

people at M

[Calum]

blah blah blah. everybody knows that you only get to read and not change the code, you only get to see it in the first place if you swear not to write or type any of it ever, or tell anybody any of it, or in any way use it. Also, you get much much less than the full source code, so it wouldn't work even if you were allowed to use it.

This source code is about as useful, when running a computer, as a roll of flowery wallpaper would be.

[mc0282]

microsft  is one dumb fucking company and they lie there ass  all way to get where there're now . and they think going to beat linux by keep liening to there customer , im mean this fuckers should realize the windows has alot bug with every window have come out and they have little kids doing the coding for windows, what so hard to make windows open source ? . i mean they could benefit the way if they would open the doors on window , programmer would make window better. now would be able to control market in piece without having people flaming them..

the reason microsoft always going to be hate it until they change how there work..

and im going to keep telling everyone i know the windows suck and explain to them why sucks.

[jtpenrod]

quote:microsft is one dumb fucking company and they lie there ass all way to get where there're now . and they think going to beat linux by keep liening to there customer , im mean this fuckers should realize the windows has alot bug with every window have come out and they have little kids doing the coding for windows, what so hard to make windows open source ? . i mean they could benefit the way if they would open the doors on window , programmer would make window better. now would be able to control market in piece without having people flaming them..

Let's think about this a bit. Since MS has dropped all support for Win 9x, suppose they open sourced it. As you say, "...programmer would make window better", and the quality would quickly surpass that of Win XP. So who would want to buy XP then? The demand for XP, for which they'd have to pay would plummet as quickly as the demand for the, now free and open source Win 9x would soar.    

No, we can't have that now can we?    
___________________________________
Live Free or Die: Linux

Their fundamental design flaws are completely concealed by their superficial design flaws.

[voidmain]

I don't know, from everything I've read (that's not a Microsloth press release) XP sales haven't been the greatest, especially if you don't count the sales to the OEMs that haven't been moved to the customers.

[jtpenrod]

"I don't know, from everything I've read (that's not a Microsloth press release) XP sales haven't been the greatest, especially if you don't count the sales to the OEMs that haven't been moved to the customers."

Sales of XP have been lagging expectations ever since the damn thing went on sale last year. Big surprise there    :rolleyes:   Seems that there are lots of folks out there just like me: they DON'T appreciate having their customer loyalty rewarded by being treated like potential criminals. WPA is an insult, plain and simple. Neither do people appreciate being nagged at, spied upon, and duped with pretty promises that are never fulfilled. Besides, how is XP all that much better than Win 2K? Why get XP if it's going to be replaced by Longhorn in a couple of years anyway? And with WPA, can anyone trust that Macro$uck won't just stop giving out XP activations when Longhorn goes on sale? Couple all that with an economy going sour, and that means even fewer customers for the over-priced bloat-ware.

Hell, at one point, sales of Office XP were so bad, MS actually sold warez versions of their own soft: The Register

Perfectly understandable.
___________________________________
Live Free or Die: Linux

Their fundamental design flaws are completely concealed by their superficial design flaws.

[ December 20, 2002: Message edited by: jtpenrod ]

[Calum]

xp will go down as a write off in a couple of years. look back on this five years from now and people will still be using win2000, and whatever windows comes after windows xp (unless it's another white elephant, as it currently looks like it might be).

XP will be the microsoft bob of the twentyone hundreds.

[KernelPanic]

I don't think this is entirely amazing, Microsoft have been sharing source code with important partners and clients for years. They don't get compatability through magic.
So what they are sharing with Indian clients too, yeah big deal it is just a new market for them to rape...

[g0tenks0]

hopefully many of these people will leak the code and microcrap will belly up

[lazygamer]

I doubt Microsoft will die just because some or all of a PORTION of the wind0ze code is leaked. Sure you get the illegal code, what are you gonna do with it? I wouldn't like the idea of messing with MS legalility, when your an indivdual or small net group, who would run the risk of meeting the MS legal army if they were unlucky. Then all that risk just for a portion of the code?