June 4th, 2007
Is Microsoft winning the FUD war in the board room?
Novell. JBoss. XenSource. Zend. Samsung. Xandros.
One by one, free and open source software providers are signing agreements with “the dark side”, the poster child for proprietary software, and (many say) the antithesis of open source: Microsoft.
Linux fans spew righteous indignation all over the blogosphere, and “poison pill” legalese is added to the most popular free software license to fight it, but the deals show no sign of slowing. Why do you think this is the case? At some point in the future, will Linux be available only from Microsoft and “approved” vendors?
Why do OSS companies keep making deals with Microsoft?
- $$$: Microsoft provides them with needed cash (36%)
- FUD: The lawyers are laughing all the way to the bank (25%)
- CYA: The suits in the board room are demanding it (18%)
- DUH: They don't know any better (11%)
- PTO: They genuinely believe their customers need "IP assurance" (10%)
Total Votes: 1,084
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Ed Burnette is a professional developer and author of several articles and books about computing including Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform, 2nd Edition. For disclosure of Ed's industry affiliations, click here or to view his full profile click here.
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| 06/05/07
