[...] Lyman remains unsuspecting when it comes to the worst-case scenario, but he hits the nail right on the head with that latter [...]

I’d be more impressed if they got involved in some of those FOSS projects themselves and provided some hands-on help in getting the FOSS to run on MS Windows. I’d be even more impressed if they decided that the hobbyist market - which they have decided is worthy of their time and money in the form of Visual [Programming Language] Express - was also worthy of becoming first-rank developers on that self-same project, and released its source tree under either their own reciprocal license, or the GPL. I’d be ecstatic if they released the source trees of their MS Win9x and MS WinNT 3.x under the GPL and said, “Go play with it to your heart’s content!”

I can dream, can’t I?

The problem with FOSS on Windows is that the OS is by far the most important piece of software running on a system. Of all components, no component is more important to the end user to have be free software. Nothing that runs on a closed OS is free when all the system and important library calls are opaque.

Impressive will be when they GPL the entirety of whatever system they want us to support. And “to GPL” means to allow for the complete, correct, and transparent building of the OS.

It’s untrustworthy computing otherwise. I don’t support untrustworthy computing. Do you consider your customers friends or what?

http://www.linuxtoday.com/it_management/2008061901626NWRHEV There is a big difference when you go with Linux.

Again, I don’t support untrustworthy computing.

Humm i would never Trust Microsoft because for one they would be try to find out what software packages Open Source uses and then make there own then attack Open Source once more i have seen this play book all to often and Open Source has to tread very litghtly when working with Microsoft or should i SAY JUDAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it is totally foolish to trust Microsoft. They just want to get close so they can sabotage projects and stab people in the back. Look what they did to the OLPC. Look how they’re corrupting the EeePC and the HP2133. I think it is best to just completely ignore them and all their projects, buy nothing they are selling and watch them linger and die. This may seem severe but how else do you deal with something so evil?

Naive. Actually, after taking a look at your about page and seeing your site is for promoting “analysts” and your products and services (which no doubt are sold to Microsoft customers and possibly Microsoft themselves from time to time), you have the same bias as Booby Winderle.

Thanks to the Halloween documents, numerous other court exhibits of internal Microsoft emails, MS being exposed with their tactics with DrDos, the AlmostPerfect story on what Microsoft did to Wordperfect’s company, more recent predatory actions like buying up virus scanning companies that run on Linux servers for scanning viruses for Windows clients, etc., thanks to their shaking the trees by mentioning “problems” with patents and Linux…by the leaked stories about Microsoft shaking down other large tech companies for money for patents plus forcing a cross-license agreement on the other companies’ patent portfolio (stories on a couple of oem companies based in Asia, can’t recall the names, LG may be one, or companies selling products similar to LG’s products), thanks to their statements in the last few years where Linux is the number one competitor to Microsoft, Linux is a virus, their statements that to beat “free” they’re going to take on Linux at every point possible…

What will Microsoft do with this survey and the countless other surveys they no doubt have privately commissioned… they will, without a doubt, hand the results to every one of their sales reps and marketing department to target every single corporation listed in the survey as having a less than desirable ratio of Microsoft applications compared to FOSS…they will, without a doubt, spin the data on their “get the facts” portion of their site… they will, without a doubt spin the data during their sales calls… they will, without a doubt, use the data to target corporations for their whisper campaign mentioning patents and possible “problems”, after which the contacts at the corporations will consult with their superiors, then consult with the compliance and legal departments, then, like they buy Red Hat instead of going with CentOS because of the reassurance of thousands of certifications for individual apps that work with Red Had but which CentOS lacks and Novell even lacks anywhere near the same number, then they will enter into an agreement and cough up licensing fees for Microsoft patents “in linux”.

To summarize, Microsoft will use the survey to its every advantage. Including their whisper campaign to extract money and in some cases use of the other companies’ patent portfolio. To do any less would be a violation of its fiduciary duty to its shareholders.

Most of the GNU/Linux community understands your reluctance to bite the hand(s) that feed you. But it’s better to just stay away from the topic altogether rather than attract attention from the community over ridiculous statements on Microsoft’s altruism. To do otherwise just reinforces your image as a laughingstock because of your bias which you will, without a doubt, deny.