Windows and Open Source

It’s hard to believe that anyone would be fooled by this miniscule Microsoft change, but many have. The press trumpeted that Microsoft was making a major policy shift towards open sourcing the code for its Office suite. Microsoft’s Open Sesame Moment [washingtonpost.com]. In fact, all they are doing is allowing some federal government agencies one-time access to look at the code for security purposes. Open source and Microsoft are at the far ends of the economic spectrum; it’s going to take far more than just a few lost government sales to get Redmond to change its stripes.