News Comment This is a comment on news story: Microsoft and open-source backers: best 'frenemies' forever? It's a reply to comment: Not even worst 'frenemies'... by: UK MAdMaN  " Microsoft would "do some buying of companies that are built around open-source products." " Look at what Microsoft has done to companies it has bought in the past, and you'll see why it would be suicide for any company to agree to sell to them. "And on Monday, Microsoft agreed to give developers of open-source workgroup server products access to Windows interoperability information..." For a small sum of €10,000, far out of the reach of most FOSS developers. "...and to slash the royalties that it will charge for using the information from 5.95 percent of a product's revenue to 0.4 percent." Null point. In Europe you can't patent software. And how much will they charge most FOSS developers who give away their work for free? " "If Microsoft really wanted to promote interoperability, Dave Gynn said, the company "wouldn't go and announce a partnership. It would just go and do it." " Absolutely. There's already protocols used across a number of platforms that allow them to interoperate with each other. The only reason for Microsoft to create their own is to lock people in to their software. "The spectre of the software vendor suing users "is not a realistic threat," Adam Solesby said. "I think we're fairly safe from that." " I'm sure the people currently being pursued by the RIAA and MPAA felt the same way.
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