OSS is making headway
Eric S. Raymond just published the latest annotated 'Halloween document' from Microsoft. It's a "Microsoft internal Linux Strategic Review" from a meeting in September and Eric has added his thoughts.
From the intro:
What We Can Learn
Here's a summary of the tactical advice for open-source advocates that I think we can glean from this memo:
The messages and tactics the open-source community has developed over the last five years are working well. Our memes about security, TCO, and competitive impact have achieved deep penetration in Microsoft's survey population. Abstract arguments about intellectual property rights, on the other hand, have served Microsoft just as poorly as they have served us.
Microsoft's FUD attacks on open source have not only failed, they have backfired strongly enough to show up in Microsoft's own market research as a problem. This means we don't need to put a lot of energy into anti-FUD defending the open-source way of doing things. Indications are we've won that battle; effort should now go elsewhere.
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It's an interesting document. It has a FAQ in case you're wondering, like I was, whether it's Microsoft FUD or not. Always be suspicious.
-Russ