Microsoft Windows Goes Open Source
In a startling revelation that took the Microsoft employees by surprise, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that Microsoft would be making the source code of all Operating systems they manufacture open source.
This announcement was certainly not expected from a company whose engineers working on the code themselves didn’t have full access to it.
The internal memo send by Steve Ballmer to the Microsoft engineers said that:
Considering the openness of Unix based system, Windows was losing the trust from end users, to plug the gap between us and other open source operating systems, we will soon be making the code that drives Windows Operating Systems Open Source.
This decision was very tough, but going forward we know that it would be the right approach to getting more community support for Windows based operating systems.
Our goal at Microsoft is not only to make money, but to also make sure that people get their monies worth, with the decision to make the code open source, we are pretty sure that, there will be lesser vulnerabilities for Windows, which in turn would make Windows more secure.
The security in Unix based systems, is partly because the code is open source and there are a huge number of developers, who devote time to keep the system bug free and threat free.
We see a brighter future for Windows by going open source and would be more than thrilled to have your support for this initiative.
The Microsoft employee who forwarded us this email was pretty aghast at this decision, as he himself had access to only part of the code, his main problem was that before going open source, Microsoft could have made the entire code available to engineers, who could then limit the vulnerabilities happening in the first place.
Microsoft has not yet made a official announcement in this regard, but this news is definitely pretty good for everyone who uses the Windows operating system.
What are your views about this decision by Microsoft? Do you think going open source would help furthering the popularity of Windows? Get the discussion on here, we would love to hear your opinions.
Scot
March 31st, 2009 at 12:40 pm #
Yeah, that’s crap. Total hoax. The English is way too broken for this to be an actual memo.
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Jean-Francois
March 31st, 2009 at 1:06 pm #
Given that April 1st is so close, I would say this is just another April Fool.
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TheAnand
March 31st, 2009 at 2:20 pm #
too obvious…..better luck next yr?
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Tim Brazer
March 31st, 2009 at 2:50 pm #
Ha!
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ArpitNext
March 31st, 2009 at 7:48 pm #
great move by MicroSoft
Loved …..
HaHaHa
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Harsh Agrawal
March 31st, 2009 at 8:11 pm #
Lolz..:P
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Piyush
March 31st, 2009 at 9:51 pm #
LOL… ROFL.. now one from me. I (Piyush Paliwal) am taking over Microsoft and Google FOR NOW and will think for Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook hmmmmmmm… ya dats it for this years purchases..
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Gautam
March 31st, 2009 at 10:40 pm #
I am sure this is an Prank, don’t know who’s the
culprit you or Microsoft or the ‘employee’ who sent
you this mail
..
I’ve worked with MS earlier and I know how nasty
they are when it comes to code — from their to Open
Source, No Way !! ..
..
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Raj
April 1st, 2009 at 5:28 am #
Thanks for the heads up, I got a copy of the Windows source code from their website.
Good thinking though
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PC
April 1st, 2009 at 8:00 am #
Good try.. But its too much to believe..
Microsoft and Open source don’t fit in one sentence
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lee
April 1st, 2009 at 8:17 am #
Yea, the tooth fairy just stopped by for coffee and my dog and iguana mated and had a bouncing baby iguanadog. Nice try!
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Ben Moreno
April 1st, 2009 at 11:26 am #
Wow! That is awesome! They could fire half of their employees now.
Happy April Fools day!
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Harshad
April 1st, 2009 at 11:54 am #
ROFL.
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Solar Power
April 12th, 2009 at 10:03 am #
Not very good.
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