Speaking of the Register, Harvey, did you see their take on Bill's Open Source trial balloon today?
Gates paves way for opening up Windows source theregister.co.uk (amusing subhead on the home page: Oh no he doesn't, shout panic-stricken spinmeisters in unison...)
And the first couple paragraphs:
Bill Gates was reported in a Bloomberg news release last night as saying that "Microsoft Corp would be willing to open the source code for its Windows software to competitors if that was all it would take to settle the antitrust case filed by the Justice Department". Gates was also attributed as saying that "If we can have a settlement, we're going to do absolutely our best to achieve it".
But minutes later, Microsoft spokesman Greg Shaw claimed: "He did not make any of the comments regarding source code that were attributed to him.' Another Microsoft spokesman, Jim Cullinan, said "We've talked to Bill, and Bill said he never said that. That issue [presumably opening Windows source code] is not even related to this case." Bloomberg then issued a correction, saying it had been advised by Microsoft that its earlier report of Gates' comment should read: "Bill Gates agreed with the statement that Microsoft Corp would be willing to open the source code for its Windows software to competitors in order to settle the antitrust case..."
Well, whatever. That particular trial balloon hardly left Bill's fingers before it was shot down. Can of worms, the remedies business.
Cheers, Dan.
P.S. Funny thing, just for the heck of it, I looked up when I first used NT2K in reference to what was then usually called NT5, now Windows 2000. March '97, and of course its release was immanent. Oh, what a time we had. Anybody heard from Sal Habash lately? |
