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Comment by darklajid | Hacker News Reader

Now, from one free software nerd¹ to another: It's not helping to kick this down.

Arguably Microsoft opened quite a lot of stuff recently. After ASP.Net and .Net Core I remember WCF, Visual Studio Code and VSO offers like this (plus the git integration).

Can we please see the good here instead of asking for everything (and unrealistic stuff, tbh), now?

① Liberate your documents or Fosdem t-shirt is the common setup here..

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Microsoft is following its own strategy none of this stuff is positive for free software. It's just a way to enter and stay relevant in a market where free software whether that's android or linux has already won. Microsoft is not doing it for us, it's doing it for itself to stay relevant. Am I thankful, no not really. I would prefer Microsoft go away and the Unixes prevail. This just ensures the market stays fragmented with Windows leading the user base. Despite the fact that there are competitors out there good enough to replace most of it.

Microsoft is a business and openness is a business strategy. I don't see the problem with that. I also don't think it is unique for any of the big technology companies. Do you think OS X is Unix based because Apple loves openness?

Fragmentation is harmful when it's mostly similar ones with minor incompatibilities, like ten thousand Linux distros and Window managers. Not to mention the various stock browser versions on Android phones.

Across a market, having two to five differently implemented competitive products results in innovation instead of stagnation with just one.

Does it matter, the motive of the employees and executives at Microsoft?

If you do something for the wrong reason, is the work tainted? Or is everyone who does your work on your side, regardless of who or why?

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