Former Microsoft CEO No Longer Negatively Attacks Linux

[FLHerne]

Didn't Balmer also say that Linux was "Literally Communism" at around the same time?

He was right!

Everyone in the community voluntarily contributing to a shared set of resources that anyone has equal rights to use is literally communism.

It's the 'Communism == EVUL!' people who were wrong. Communism doesn't seem to work for running countries (gets subverted into totalitarian systems), that doesn't make it a bad idea in general.

[rabcor]

I guess it's kinda hard to call Linux cancer when he's probably using it knowing Windows 10 is actually cancer.

[Passso]

GNU is about as Marxist as Ronny Raygun.

Its creator is a narcissistic weasel who likes cutthroat lawyer-speech and stealing other people's work and acclaim.

I met him in a meeting a long time ago, you cannot imagine how far you are from truth.
He is just a genius nerd dressed like a hobo, wanting to make things change, and let's be honest he helped things to change.

Maybe you can judge him strange/awkward/crazy/idealistic but narcissistic.... lol

[bug77]

So many people take this quote out of context, after over a decade you'd think news sites would get it right, guess it generates too many clicks to pass up. He was attacking the highly restrictive GPL, and used Linux as an example. Granted, very poor choice of words, but it's a valid point none the less. Doesn't even look like he referenced this old quote, just saying that the "danger" Linux posed is in the rear view mirror. Again, his words.


Yes, please. One of the reasons my desktops don't run Linux or Unix is because I can't use it for work.. they do a native Linux version, I'd give pretty good odds of my switching.

And why is GPL restrictive? As a developer, I see it as the opposite: it guarantees that I will forever have access to the code and its modifications. It is only restrictive if you want to take something that's freely available, modify it and keep the changes to yourself.
I'm not saying it's the perfect license (I don't grasp all the legal implications), but since it has supported Linux for so long, I'm having a hard time seeing where does it look or behave like cancer.

[Uqbar]

It'd be nice to ask Linus about his sentiments about Windows. For the sake of balanced parity...

[Passso]

It'd be nice to ask Linus about his sentiments about Windows. For the sake of balanced parity...

Oh please no, we would see his mighty finger again!

[asdfblah]

Microsoft Hates Linux: Patent Extortion Continues With New Software Patents Deal (Wistron)

http://techrights.org/2016/03/08/mic...rting-wistron/

This. Microsoft is still making a shitload of money without having done anything to get it. We can thank US (muh freedum) software patent laws for this...

[Michael_S]

That's unfair. GNU is literally communism, Linux only borders on it

Nonsense. You can make money with GNU software, you just can't restrict people's ability to reuse it beyond the same restrictions you yourself have.

So you can still run a hosted email service on GNU software and charge a monthly fee for users. You can still put Linux (or if you prefer the label GNU/Linux, then GNU/Linux) on a computer or phone and sell it. You can charge people $100 per hour to work on adding some feature they want to a GNU program.

"You can only reuse this copyrighted work under specific conditions" != "communism"

There's no such proprietary intellectual property nonsense in the capitalist market for selling oil, or coal, or clothing, or food. (Edit: No EULAs, no walled gardens.) Everyone puts basically the same thing on sale, and the customers pick the best deal. GNU software works the same way, it's plenty capitalist.

[kokoko3k]

Well, he did say Linux was cancer. And after some years, despite Linux not changing, he says otherwise. If that's not flip-flopping, what is?

Obviously, the cancer is taking over and possessing them , i can't see any flip-flopping here

[damonlynch]

It'd be nice to ask Linus about his sentiments about Windows. For the sake of balanced parity...

Maybe you'll find your answer at https://github.com/torvalds/subsurface