

Meet Microsoft Open Technologies Inc., the new open-source subsidiary for MS - tilt
http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2012/04/12/meet-microsoft-open-technologies-inc-the-new-open-source-subsidiary-for-microsoft/

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naner
Open-source and free software communites for the most part are still going to
be distrustful of Microsoft (and their spin-offs) as long as the company
continues to extract patent licensing fees from companies that make use of
Linux.

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jfasi
The foundation of a new legal entity for open source is not any sort of
magnanimous move on the part of Microsoft. It is a standard maneuver in
companies wishing to take advantage of open source projects: create a separate
company just to avoid GPL poisoning your products.

And this is perfectly fine. For instance, Qualcomm set up Code Aurora
specifically so that they could keep their propriety and open source offerings
separate.

The shifty thing here is that Microsoft is trying to paint this as some sort
of altruism, as thought Microsoft is doing the open source world a favor by
setting up a legal formality.

