

Miguel de Icaza's answer to "Does Windows cost Microsoft opportunities?" - DrJokepu
http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2010/Mar-25.html

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rbanffy
I wish this had come earlier in the article:

"Microsoft has new management, new employees that know open source, fresh new
ideas, is becoming more open and is working actively on interoperability with
third parties. They even launched the CodePlex Foundation"

It would have spared me reading it.

The only reason Microsoft wants to know open-source is to more effectively
kill it. They have realized that just bad-mouthing it, calling it a virus,
wouldn't do the trick. Now they use a far more sophisticated approach, precise
wording (using "non-commercial" instead of "free" or "open-source") and
passing a confusing message regarding patents (the "community promise" while
announcing patent deals - whose terms are secret - with companies using Linux
in their devices).

No. They haven't changed. Not a bit.

~~~
cageface
Exactly. I still can't understand why somebody as smart as Miguel doesn't get
this. Any free software strategy that depends on the goodwill and good conduct
of MS is doomed from the start.

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drats
Miguel never ceases to amaze me on that front. Given he's not a stupid person
I have reduced it down to a psychological explanation regarding his early days
- getting denied after an MS interview and it turning into an obsession to
prove his worth to them or something. But even that feels weak to me even if
it is plausible. But weak is better than nothing, because there seems to be no
other reason to be so credulous about their good intentions.

~~~
MichaelGG
So someone smart does something you don't understand, and you decide it must
be a psychological problem?

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drats
I said he wasn't stupid, I didn't say he was smart. I do think he is smart in
the technical domain. I am not so sure about elsewhere. And "psychological
problem" isn't what I said either, I just implied the explanation perhaps lay
in his inability to get to Microsoft and then desiring their approval. Tons of
people have long lost dreams that they romanticize. For example a lot of
programmers, despite the horrific stories that come out of the games industry,
still regret not going in that direction. You can see how someone who built up
MS in their youth and didn't get there might also have such a longing and
ignore the bad stories that come out. I hope I have clarified the not
stupid/smart and the psychological explanation/problem differences between the
wording of my post and yours for you.

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nkohari
Miguel de Icaza is the foremost expert in the CLR that doesn't work for
Microsoft. If he wanted to work for Microsoft in any capacity, I would bet
anything that they would roll out the red carpet for him. You're either
projecting or you don't know what you're talking about.

~~~
vetinari
He wanted to work for Microsoft, but they didn't employ him (to be fair, he
was not US citizen and he didn't fulfil the H1-B requirements).

After that, he started Gnome (complete with the CORBA-fiasco) and later Mono.

------
wendroid
> I still believe that Microsoft lost a great opportunity of having .NET
> become the universal runtime of the net

Phew, I'm sure glad we dodged that bullet. Imagine that !

