Microsoft President Brad Smith Acknowledges They Were Previously Wrong On Open-Source

[Terrablit]

Open Source Net Framework completely no just Core for servers or else shut up.

What? .Net Framework is being effectively deprecated. .NET 5 will be .NET Core only - even on Windows. What's more, WPF has already been ported to .NET Core, and WCF is being ported. Asp.net is also .NET Core-only. Pretty much every major MS technology built on the .NET stack is on .NET Core now, with only a few things that are being actively discarded with minimal porting interest. And the old .NET Framework source is available online with a reference license, though it's really not needed much anymore. WPF doesn't run on non-windows platforms, but that's not a permanent thing. The windows source is there, and it's only a matter of time at this point. And thankfully most of the .NET source is now part of the .NET Foundation.

There's a lot of valid complaints about Microsoft not open-sourcing things or not targeting open source platforms, But .NET is the one thing that *hasn't* been all talk. It's pretty much been the poster child for good community interaction at MS.

[stormcrow]

Not even that much; if they simply release MS Office for Linux.

Sorry to break it to you, but Office 365 and all the apps that accompany it all run very well on Linux in a browser window. So that pretty much means Office now runs on any OS that Firefox will support. Is it open source? No, but neither do most Office users much care. Microsoft is moving towards platform agnostic deployment of most of its software. Linux and MacOS are both the beneficiary and the cause for that movement.

Microsoft has been de-emphasizing native deployment in favor of cloud based and remote software services along with most of the rest of the industry. Basically, the center jewel in Microsoft's crown now runs on just about any OS or platform you want to run it on so long as you use a supported browser, not just Windows. Back 10 years ago, no one would have even guessed that would happen. And yet, Linux as a desktop is still not a major Thing even though Office can now be used on it without Wine or Cross Over. The problem is no longer Microsoft as the impediment for desktop Linux. The problem is much closer to home.

[JustinTurdeau]

MS is still on the wrong side of history in many aspects.

Even the aspects where they seem to have improved are only cynical ploys. Microsoft have only "changed" in the same way a psychopath would change if you pointed a gun at his head.

[Danny3]

We have a saying in my language:

The wolf changes its furr, but not its attitude

So, in my opinion they are just saying that they are sorry and they made a mistake for the naive, but in reality they would like open source and Linux to die.
And another saying in my language:

Some people go as the wind blows

Microsoft is seeing that open source and Linux is winning on so many level and now they are trying to trick people that they are supporters of it as if they were from the beginning, as we wouldn't have any memory

In any case people and FSF just a few months ago asked them to open source the code of Windows 7 since they are not developing and selling it anymore.
So if they support and love open source so much where is Windows 7's source code ?
Where is Office source code a a version for Linux ?

Microsoft thinks we are idiots!
GTFO Microsoft with your fake open source support!

[cl333r]

"Microsoft is the single largest open-source contributor" .. because it bought GitHub?
Is that how it works? So I have several repos in GitHub and that's counted as MS contributions to open source, right?

[muncrief]

And yet Windows 10 continues to be the world's first "legal" botnet.

I won't believe MS until they remove all the built-in malware from Windows, and open source their software.

Until then they are simply lying.

Again.

[Mel Spektor]

What? .Net Framework is being effectively deprecated. .NET 5 will be .NET Core only - even on Windows. What's more, WPF has already been ported to .NET Core, and WCF is being ported. Asp.net is also .NET Core-only. Pretty much every major MS technology built on the .NET stack is on .NET Core now, with only a few things that are being actively discarded with minimal porting interest. And the old .NET Framework source is available online with a reference license, though it's really not needed much anymore. WPF doesn't run on non-windows platforms, but that's not a permanent thing. The windows source is there, and it's only a matter of time at this point. And thankfully most of the .NET source is now part of the .NET Foundation.

There's a lot of valid complaints about Microsoft not open-sourcing things or not targeting open source platforms, But .NET is the one thing that *hasn't* been all talk. It's pretty much been the poster child for good community interaction at MS.

what are you talking about it's 2020 and still some Wine programs don't run because of Net Framework 4.5 ... it´s clearly a lock-in. Deprecating Net Framework 4.5 or older is still not enough there's literally millions of apps using Net Framework 4.5, what will be your options when Net Framework 4.5 gets removed from Windows OS? Use an unsupported OS?
(and also there is devs using NetFramework 4.5 on 2020.)
Besides every major technology? what do you mean? UWP? (another lock-in)

[horizonbrave]

I guess that the legalization of LSD in Amerika gives finally its fruits.. Go Microsoft, Go Timothy Ballmer!

[Sonadow]

Sorry to break it to you, but Office 365 and all the apps that accompany it all run very well on Linux in a browser window. So that pretty much means Office now runs on any OS that Firefox will support. Is it open source? No, but neither do most Office users much care. Microsoft is moving towards platform agnostic deployment of most of its software. Linux and MacOS are both the beneficiary and the cause for that movement.

The Microsoft 365 is still badly gimped on the browser. Word for Web does not allow images used for document headers to cover the entirely of the header, so there are still ugly white borders all over the page's top. And they still refuse to allow the web version of Word to generate its own Table of Contents.

And yet, the gimped web version of Office is still a much better product to use, compared to LO, any time, any day.

Speaking as a Microsoft 365 subscriber and former LO user.

[rodmra]

Sorry to break it to you, but Office 365 and all the apps that accompany it all run very well on Linux in a browser window. So that pretty much means Office now runs on any OS that Firefox will support. ...

It doesn't "run very well" in a web browser on any OS. It's very limited. Example: external links, vba macros, etc.