It used to be that Microsoft and open source did not fit in the same sentence. Or they were the opposites.
I’m posting this from a Microsoft sponsored open source event. One Microsoft manager just said that positive feedback is what they need. They want positive feedback from open source developers. They want to change their image. They have open source partnerships and interoperability programs running.
Why the change? Larry Augustin provided an interesting thought. In the 1980s the safe bet was IBM. Nobody got fired for buying IBM. In the 1990s it was Microsoft. Nobody got fired for buying Microsoft. And now the safe bet is open source. Nobody gets fired for buying open source. And according to Augustin, Microsoft would like to still claim the same…