Re: MS programmers contributing to open-source?
From: Joseph Dionne (jdionne_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 12/22/03
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Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 14:45:37 GMT
Frederick Leslie Evans wrote:
> Hello, just a quick question: are employees of Microsoft forbidden by
> contract from contributing to Linux and/or other free-software projects in
> their leisure time? If so, is such a contractual term considered
> controversial by programmers? If it is not actually prohibited, are MS
> programmers nevertheless discouraged somehow from the practice as it
> favours the competition, and do they have to contribute secretly if they
> want to contribute at all? Lastly, *do* any of them make valuable
> contributions to the free-software movement, overtly or covertly?
>
> Thank you for any answers to these questions --Les
I believe that most software business owners discourage their developers
from contributing to open source for fear that proprietary code, paid
for by the business owner, will be disclosed. This belief, in my view,
would definitely apply to M$.
Others have also noted that the culture at M$ believe open source their
biggest competitor, and as such have bad mouthed the practice publicly.
One would think that contributing to open source would be viewed very
unkindly by M$ managers.
But, developers, while varying widely in beliefs and views, are still
kindred spirits, and problem solvers always looking for challenges, and
I suspect that M$ has some closet open source contributors working for them.
But, I believe the M$ benefits more from the open source community than
any contributions made by M$ developers.
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