Philisophical M$

[MrBert]

"Main Entry: soft·ware
Pronunciation: 'soft-"war, -"wer
Function: noun
Date: 1960
: something used or associated with and usually contrasted with hardware: as a : the entire set of programs, procedures, and related documentation associated with a system and especially a computer system; specifically : computer programs b : materials for use with audiovisual equipment"

Does this mean that software should include the code? If the code is not included should M$ be responsable for failure in their product. Would their software work better if the code was public?

I belive that the software would evolve faster and be better if the code were public. I know that this is a total argument for open sorce. I may be preaching to the choir, but i think that it would make a good thread.

Would making all software open source put many companies out of buissness? Especially vertical market tecnologies. And think of the implimentcations of open sorce firewalls. maybe it would make them better but it could also make flaws more apparent.

[Alex]

You can wish, hope and pray that MS will release its code, but its never gonna happen, And even if it does it will be the code to MS-DOS or Windows 3.1 =)

[t2k2]

I agree with you on that Alex. I don't think that they will ever release their code. I do think that product development would be much better if the software was open source. There is so much talent out there, and I have even run into some very talented people in the AO community. This place is great. Back to what you were saying...yes I do think that it would put some companies out of business. Microsoft probably feels that they would take a big cut in revenue, and it's true, they would, but don't they have enough money? They should take one for the team and release the code...release the code!

[bdhoff]

I personally don't believe that the world is ready for all software to be open-source. I think that the majority of people that own or use computers don't know enough about them to appreciate what open source would do for the development community. The majority of users want to put a CD in a drive and install pre-compiled binaries because they have a job to do. They don't want to be bogged down in the nuances of what a tweak here or a tuck there could do for performance.

With that said, I think that we all can see and appreciate what open source has done already. With things like linux, MySQL, Apache and Tomcat geeks like me can build killer apps for the cost of the PC that they run on and I can change whatever I want to to make my creations do what I want them to. It truly is a wonderful thing.

I predict that in the future open source software is going to erode the grip that companies like Microsoft have on the software market and that small shops developing open source projects will find a way to make money with what they produce. MS apps just keep getting fatter and fatter on their own, and small outfits can't afford to code in pork.