Microsoft 3D Movie Maker Released As Open-Source

[mdedetrich]

After reading quite a bit about the process they followed to open source such an ancient program, it really does demonstrate that companies like Microsoft are paralyzed when it comes to source code releases. They will never be able to engage with the modern world of open-source.

Was a fun program though. I would have really enjoyed the source code back then (or even after a couple of years after them ceasing sale of the original product, not sodding 20!). There was an oddly large community asking Microsoft to release this software for decades!

"Oh no! a Rat!"

Wouldn't be surprised if its the same reason why NVidia's driver is still closed source. Mind sharing a link?

[CochainComplex]

People seem to forget that Microsoft has a lot of open source projects. You don't have to be an MS fan in order to give them credit where they deserve it. You can hate Windows and DirectX, like I do, and still give them credit for their open source contributions.

https://opensource.microsoft.com/projects

And which project has substantial use cases on Linux? Vscode but this is comparable to "free OpenSource" Chrome. You pay by giving data.

[prometeo]

could microsoft opensource msteams ? like this, maybe somebody could fork it and make a real working client on linux ...

Even a really working Windows version would be nice... As of today, it's crashing like hell, taking down the system with it.

[mdedetrich]

Even a really working Windows version would be nice... As of today, it's crashing like hell, taking down the system with it.

I have been running Windoes for years on dozens of machines and at least from Windoes 7 to now I haven't gotten any crashes

[mdedetrich]

And which project has substantial use cases on Linux? Vscode but this is comparable to "free OpenSource" Chrome. You pay by giving data.

You can build VSCode from source and it won't have telemetry. Microsoft also created LSP (language server protocol) which is probably the most practical tool that has come out in the past decade for IDEs/editors/compilers.

[Volta]

Crap software from crap company. There's nothing from them that would benefit Open Source. Not even driver for their miserable ntfs.

[Vistaus]

And people use these kind of historical releases to say that Microsoft now releases a lot of open source things...

Not just historical, they also open source newer things, like Visual Studio Code, .NET and the new Windows Terminal and Calculator.

Also, historical or not: please educate me, how many other (big) companies open source historical stuff? I cannot think of more than five.

So it's a good move on their part. Also, there's a small community still using this, so they would benefit from a good fork, which is already in the works: https://twitter.com/shanselman/statu...34107163619328

MS is not perfect and I too hate on them from time to time, but I'm also of the “let's give credit where due” kind. And this is one of those situations where they deserve credit.

[Vistaus]

Foone (the person on Twitter that asked for it) will apparently fork it and try to make it work and maintain it going forward.

https://twitter.com/shanselman/statu...34107163619328

I wonder who's going to use it and support him, though, as most people on here seem to not like the fact that it's now open source.

[Vistaus]

People complain because the contribution is near worthless. Sure it is, but it is still a contribution regardless.

People: “Open source your projects, esp. if they are abandonware!!!”
Also people (after the fact): “It's worthless to open source abandonware, what a shitty contribution!!!”

People suck. Period.

[sinepgib]

I have been running Windoes for years on dozens of machines and at least from Windoes 7 to now I haven't gotten any crashes

The quoted post is talking about MS Teams on Windows. Now, I feel it's dubious that it brings the whole system down with it. If there's something modern OSes pretty much solved many years ago is userspace errors bringing the whole system down. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if Teams crashed on Windows or any other platform.

And which project has substantial use cases on Linux? Vscode but this is comparable to "free OpenSource" Chrome. You pay by giving data.

LSP that all IDEs and editors enjoy was made and opened by MS (of course, not because of altruism but because it was the only way for VS Code to be competitive, but that's irrelevant here, no company is really altruistic), as well as the .NET platform (maybe not _used_ that much, but completely _usable_).

Please note its not just Microsoft I wish has the policy that X number of years release software open source if it end of life and nothing else exists new to read the format.

In a perfect world abandonware would always become open source based on right to repair laws. Never gonna happen, but one can dream.
For a start it would require proactive archival in some government agency to avoid cases of "lost floppies", good luck getting companies to get on board with that :'(