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Comment by linuxftw | Hacker News Reader

Big-fat "So what?" to all of that.

Their primary product is still proprietary, and if that's not bad enough, it's essentially completely spyware at this point.

I don't want to use their crap open source products so I can integrate with their crap proprietary SaaS ecosystem.

Just because they're finally deciding to release some token software with some level of open source, and buying political influence via the linux foundation, doesn't make them a friend of free software. There is more to free software than just the license: their strategy of vendor-lockin via Terms of Service instead of EULA, they are merely seeking to 'vendorize' free software projects to integrate with their paid products.

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Their primary product is still proprietary, and if that's not bad enough, it's essentially completely spyware at this point.

You could say the same about Google......

I don't disagree. I have started using Firefox as my primary browser again.

And you don't have any social media accounts, don't use Google/Bing or any other Google/Microsoft service, no social media (Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, etc), right?

So you have to be 100% clean of all google/microsoft tools/services in order to criticize them? Give me a break.

Their motivations don't make their work bad. OP is pointing out that MS is much less an enemy of OSS than they used to be, not that you should use their software and services.

I hate MS, but please, don't make the case that no progress is better than some progress. They aren't perfect, and of course they are motivated to make money, but none of that means their work isn't good for OSS.

> but none of that means their work isn't good for OSS.

I disagree. They are losing developer mind share, that's the only reason they have any open source initiatives. None of what MS does is good for open source IMO, and they can keep their money.

There seems to be quite the concerted effort to make MS 'cool and hip' here and elsewhere. I'm not buying it, I'm not using their software, and it's still perfectly valid to dislike MS for aforementioned reasons. I view their work on free software as only a mechanism to co-opt.

I view VS Code as an excellent editor and Unix Subsystem for Windows making Windows a first-class citizen (almost) for dev work. But hey, opinions are like assholes, everybody has one.

Right, you've reminded me of the time they tried to take over Java on Windows by embracing it.

Microsoft tries to claim they love and support open source for the greater good, but what they really love is money. If they offer you a job, try running Linux as the primary OS on your work computer and see what they say (even if you want to run Windows using KVM). It's a broken toxic culture there. If you have good intentions, you'll likely be fired.

I've known multiple Microsoft developers who use a MBP at work, and who aren't fired. And now that MS has bought companies like Xamarin, need to support Linux and Mac.

They wouldn't allow it 2 years ago. Yeah, you can run Linux in a VM but not as your main desktop connecting to their corporate network.

I assume GP meant "MBP" means "MacBook Pro" so, not Linux either.

> Their primary product is still proprietary, and if that's not bad enough, it's essentially completely spyware at this point.

Interested Observer here. What is Microsoft's primary product you are referring to? Windows or Office. From a quick Google search, it seems like Office (based on revenue).

That may be true, but perception may be otherwise.

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