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Comment by EnderMB | Hacker News Reader

For the people that are still against Microsoft's involvement in mainstream technology, I don't think there will ever be a time where they'll accept Microsoft.

That's not to say that their criticisms are unfounded. The main criticism today is around advertising and telemetry in Windows 10, and that's absolutely a problem for a professional device. There are many scummy practices still going on at Microsoft, and the disjointed nature between their divisions is plain to see.

I don't mind it, because I think criticism is required to keep people/companies honest, and to drive improvement, but at this point I think a lot of people in tech will always find something to complain about in regards to Microsoft.

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Since quite some evil tactics have been employed by MS against the FLOSS community, it is also good if an official apology would be issued. I really believe such a thing can "clear the air". They are supporting Linux now, and contributing in FLOSS: so we know they do not thing that open source licenses are "evil". Yet they have advocated for them evil in the past. So make a public apology and move on, now it's like they simply hope every one forgets.

Issuing an apology will do squat.

The people that oppose Microsoft aren't asking for one, they're asking for changes to other things so the apology is moot. Microsoft is far from perfect, but they're possibly the only one of the big 4 that is at least trending in the right direction.

They've apologized in many ways over the years, and especially in many of their PRs about their open source efforts, but also in casual moments and jokes in their conferences. Ballmer himself admitted he was too harsh on open source in a magazine article somewhat recently.

I doubt they simply hope every one forgets, they probably hope every one forgives eventually.

Thanks. I did not know they apologized for stiffling the FLOSS effort.

I've never seen such PR, but I will trust you on it.

Who is supposed to issue this apology?

The person writing the press release for such an apology didn't do anything, so there's nothing for them to apologize for. The people responsible for Microsoft's anti-OSS stance are minimally involved in 2018, if at all.

There are plenty of people and companies who apologize without putting action behind it. Apologies are a nice gesture on a personal level, but they don't mean anything without action, and they don't mean anything at all at a company level. Microsoft is, at a minimum, showing it wants people to think it's changed. People unwilling to give them a chance are not going to be persuaded by a press release with apology in the title.

> Who is supposed to issue this apology?

Who was involved in the decision to fund SCO in their lawsuit against IBM over copyrights in Linux? I could stand to start with those people.

Next, round up all the people who paid for (and probably ghost-wrote) articles, in all the trade press, to persuade corporate America that Linux was a copyright-absorbing cancer?

I'll believe Microsoft "LOVES LINUX" when they announce Office365 for Ubuntu, and not a day before.

Yes, I'm bitter. I was very active in trying to get Linux more-widely accepted at my Fortune 250 in the 90's, and a bad-faith manager used the lawsuit, and the coverage of it, to stifle my efforts.

What lawsuit happened in the '90s? All I see on the Wikipedia page started in 2003. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO%E2%80%93Linux_disputes#Tim...

Are you sure it was a lawsuit and not the state of the still very new Linux in the '90s? From what I recall, Linux didn't have a good reputation before 2.6.

It would be a nice gesture, but I still don't believe people will forgive Microsoft.

Microsoft are a different company to the one that tried to damage FLOSS. Those people want an apology from a strong Microsoft, not one they refuse to acknowledge as a top-tier tech company in 2018.

IMO, it's not the attack on FLOSS that people hate. It's the impact on the tech landscape during their time in tech, and no apology will repair that history. All we can hope for is that Microsoft continue to fight the good fight, and focus on creating good products and services. As I said before, criticism keeps a company honest, and hopefully that hate will balance out the praise and make Microsoft into an honest voice in tech.

> Microsoft are a different company to the one that tried to damage FLOSS.

Sure, "the river is never the same" :) But it's also the same shop and should be up front about this type of change in attitude, right?

> IMO, it's not the attack on FLOSS that people hate. It's the impact on the tech landscape during their time in tech, and no apology will repair that history.

I do think they still suffer from their sneaky behavior. That kind of impact on tech is to be expected of any capitalist outfit. Fixing that would be gov't's job.

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