MS contributing to Linux

[Liam Proven]

2009/7/23 Chan Chung Hang Christopher <christopher.chan at bradbury.edu.hk>:
> Smoot Carl-Mitchell wrote:
>> On Tue, 2009-07-21 at 22:25 +0800, Chan Chung Hang Christopher wrote:
>>
>>> தங்கமணி அருண் wrote:
>>>
>>>> Read : http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/7/20/167
>>>>
>>> OOOooohh. Microsoft releasing a driver so that you can run Linux on top
>>> of Windows. What a PR win.
>>
>> This is an MS move to compete with VMware. I am not sure why you want to
>> run Linux under Windows, but there are a lot of Windows shops out there
>> that may see some benefits.
>>
> Dude, where do you get the kool-aid?

He is exactly right. Of course it is. Hyper-V is *exactly* the same
sort of move as Internet Explorer was.

Secondly, MS did not choose to give away the source, it had to,
because it has been caught violating the GPL.

For those too young to remember or with short memories, when Windows
95 came out, it did not include a Web browser. Instead it had a client
for MS' proprietary online service, the Microsoft Network, MSN - which
is now totally gone, dismantled, but the name lives on as that of a MS
promotional website and a proprietary instant-messaging client.

Then Netscape came along. It offered a multiplatform web browser and
email client which ran on Windows, Mac and Unix. Closed-source,
proprietary, but free for home and non-commercial use.

Netscape did very well. Its browser soon dominated the Web. MS had
totally failed to see that the Web was coming, as demonstrated by its
very basic v1.0 web browser being relegated to a paid-for optional
add-on for Windows called the Plus Pack, which mainly contained extra
themes and some games.

Microsoft responded by aggressively developing Internet Explorer,
giving it away for free to all users of Windows 3.1, 95 and NT and
bundling it in with Windows 95B and Windows NT4.

This was anti-competitive behaviour - there are laws against this kind
of thing, for good reasons which are today mostly forgotten. The same
sort of laws used to protect us from bank speculation and so on, were
dismantled in the 1980s and 1990s and resulted in the current stock
markets crash and worldwide recession.

Microsoft's legal defence against accusations of illegal bundling were
that IE - remember, originally an optional extra - was not bundled
with Windows, it was an integral part of it. Despite demonstrations in
court that this "integral part" could be removed, MS was not
prosecuted.

Result: in the end, Netscape went broke.

Now, VMware is making good money off the MS platform, just as Netscape
did. So, MS bought Connectix for its VirtualPC hypervisor, gave the
Windows versions away for free, built the core into Windows Server and
called it HyperV - which is also free.

It's specifically designed to stab VMware in the back by undercutting
VMware's product with a free equivalent. It is exactly the same
illegal action that MS took with IE 14 years ago. It got away with it
then and it will now.

But for HyperV to be accepted, it must support the other OSs people
use - which, today, means Linux.

So, MS produces add-ins for guest OSs running under VirtualPC/Server/Hyper-V.

In this case, it used GPL code to produce the add-in, was caught, and
rather than fighting the case, it's chosen to release the whole lot as
GPL. Doubtless many inside MS are not too happy about this, but it
means the company can buy good PR out of what originated as a careless
mistake.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/23/microsoft_hyperv_gpl_violation/

http://www.osnews.com/story/21882/Microsoft_s_Linux_Kernel_Code_Drop_Result_of_GPL_Violation

And some cogent analysis:
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1469009/microsoft-donates-code-linux

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419
AOL/AIM/iChat/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • LiveJournal/Twitter: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508