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Microsoft Writes A Letter To Open Source

A scene from the movie Revolution OS (A Linux Documentary) in which a letter written by a young Bill Gates is written to some of the founders of the Open Source coding movement.

  • Valcor
  • posted by Valcor
  • Date 5/18/2007 12:02:14 AM
  • Views: 1616
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15 Comments

Current View: 15 / Show all Comments

Dave Says : LVL 33: VP 4.2: said:

Dave Says

2 votes NegativePositive

508 days 16 hours ago...

Full espisode plz.

gnoofy : LVL 13: VP 2.2: said:

gnoofy

6 votes NegativePositive

508 days 13 hours ago...

It's not an episode, it's a film. You can find it on google video.

John_T1 : LVL 47: VP 5: said:

John_T1

16 votes NegativePositive

507 days 22 hours ago...

Long live BitTorrent!

ThisIsTooBoring : LVL 15: VP 2.4: said:

ThisIsTooBoring

15 votes NegativePositive

507 days 18 hours ago...

That letter wasn't addressed to open source founders.. at the time it was written there were no open source founders, nearly all software was open source. The industry was still an infant.

Without proprietary software, the computing world we know today would not exist. Not many people are willing to put blood sweat and tears (myself included) into writing software only to have its source code (or binaries) taken and distributed for free. If I spend 320 hours writing a piece of software, I'm sure as fuck not going to just let it go for free. There may be some things that I would, but I have to make money somehow.

Does it make me any less of a programmer? Nope. I should be reimbursed for my work if I want to.

It would be like Ford spending time and money in producing a vehicle, only to give it away for free. Doesn't make much sense, does it?

Charging for binaries and supplying a copy of the source code is just as counterproductive. Any antipiracy measures would simply be removed, recompiled, and then distributed freely; or the source code just distributed freely. All of that translates into me not getting reimbursed for my time.

walteronrice : LVL 8: VP 1.7: said:

walteronrice

-6 votes NegativePositive

507 days 18 hours ago...

yes, full film please

ThisIsTooBoring : LVL 15: VP 2.4: said:

ThisIsTooBoring

14 votes NegativePositive

507 days 18 hours ago...

^ Are you people really that lazy?



http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Revolution+OS

R1mz : LVL 13: VP 2.2: said:

R1mz

4 votes NegativePositive

507 days 17 hours ago...

and now your hes the richest man in the world...happy?

DeezNutz : LVL 17: VP 2.6: said:

DeezNutz

18 votes NegativePositive

507 days 17 hours ago...

That woman did a good job of sounding like a bitch. Sounds like this movie is from a bunch of self-serving douchebags.

People work, they should get paid, not have their shit given away for free so someone else can profit from it.

ThisIsTooBoring : LVL 15: VP 2.4: said:

ThisIsTooBoring

7 votes NegativePositive

507 days 17 hours ago...

^ The documentary is pretty on-track aside from that clip. You're right though, she did a great job sounding like a bitch. The clip was used to transition from preamble to the open source philosophy, etc.

fuzzybums : LVL 17: VP 2.6: said:

fuzzybums

4 votes NegativePositive

507 days 17 hours ago...

i like documentaries like this
very interesting indeed.

assmaster : LVL 39: VP 4.7: said:

assmaster

3 votes NegativePositive

507 days 17 hours ago...

I think anyone who wants to give their time for free should be allowed to even if someone else is trying to make money doing the very same thing. Stealing code written by others for profit is totally wrong in any sense of the word. Someone else writing a word processing program and releasing it for free should not in anyway cause microsoft to claim theft of msword.

If people decide the free program is to be the dominant program, then microsoft and any other company should have to rethink their product's value.

PaperNexus : LVL 25: VP 3.4: said:

PaperNexus

3 votes NegativePositive

507 days 16 hours ago...

I think the music and the progressively angry tone of the womans voice was unfair. You don't know if he was in an angry mood or not when writing the letter- its just text.

kimurao2 : LVL 1: VP 1: said:

kimurao2

0 votes NegativePositive

507 days 15 hours ago...

... but all and all, it clashed great with his smiling portrait and the " spiraling-out-of-control " segments of his face. Very Emo.

Vizreel : LVL 37: VP 4.5: said:

Vizreel

0 votes NegativePositive

507 days 14 hours ago...

Who cares? pay them for making the software, if it doesn't work you have the undisputable argument "I payed moneh for it, ye arsehole!", ALTHOUGH we got the software illegally from actual assholes who give open source hacking programs that gives you the possibility of owning thousand dollars software with just one push of your index finger...

Dunno about you guys, but when I hear someone say something like "I bought the new [random software]" I immediately call them an idiot... If I ever were to BUY software it would be out of respect and nothing more...

jetpil0t : LVL 1: VP 1: said:

jetpil0t

8 votes NegativePositive

507 days 14 hours ago...

Feel free to flame away, but he does have a point I think when the letter was written. They just seem to be arguing a case on principle TODAY when, really, its not like the lack of product purchases are sending software companies down the tubes... Last time I checked Microsoft was doing OK...

But if you think about it in as much I never intended paying $100 for a copy of Battlefield, it just didnt warrant the cost. When I download it off the internet, they company has not really lost any money, as I had no intention of purchasing the game in the first place. Perhaps I did not avoid purchasing it with the knowlege if was free from the net, rather, it was not worth the asking price, but on a whim, it is worth a few hours to download.

And in some cases, yes software is worth the price tag. However in most cases if you dont have the money, was never going to purchase the product, period, they have no case for los of profits as they cant lose customers they never had in the first place.

Might be way wrong on this, so flame away :)

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