[kwlug-disc] Microsoft Patches Linux; Linus Responds | Linux Magazine

[unsolicited]

I hear you, but ... how is the situation you describe different than 
today's situation (pre-MS code release). i.e. Consider the MS solution 
as non-viable / unacceptable, today, or then, and migrate to the other 
solution. (As noted, e.g. Xen, vmware, etc.)

Is vendor lock in the same issue today as it has been in the past?

No, at least in some ways - e.g. Xen, Open Office.

Yes, at least in some ways - e.g. MS Project and Visio still seem to 
be the industry wide standard, without similar, competing, universal 
industry wide FOSS alternative.

If Linux servers are finally industry standards, look how long it took 
for that to occur. It still baffles me why similar success on the 
desktop still evades us. Especially at MS Office costs.

Bob Jonkman wrote, On 07/27/2009 4:08 PM:
> Khalid says:
> 
>> But as far as the embrace, extend, extinguish thing goes, they can do 
>> the first 2 all they like. The GPL prevents them from doing the 3rd!
> 
> 
> The GPL can ensure that the newly released driver code lives on in its 
> current incarnation.
> 
> But no such restrictions exist for HyperV.  Nothing prevents Microsoft 
> from changing HyperV so that it becomes incompatible with the open 
> source drivers just released.  And open source programmers are not going 
> to invest much time in reverse-engineering HyperV to keep these drivers 
> compatible, when other open source alternatives to HyperV already exist. 
> A business that has invested in HyperV is not going to continue to use 
> an old version of HyperV to maintain compatibility with some open-source 
> drivers. For most businesses it makes more business sense (ie. it's 
> cheaper in the short term) to buy the compatible Microsoft product.
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