MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-02-21 |
| FROM | Ruben I Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Re: [fairuse] Outgoing Executive Warns Microsoft Must Embrace Open Source
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That is nice
Outgoing Executive Warns Microsoft Must Embrace Open Source
By Mitch Wagner, InternetWeek Feb 18, 2003 (8:59 PM) URL:
http://www.internetweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=6900240
A retiring Microsoft executive delivered a kick in the pants to the
software giant, warning in a version of his resignation letter that he
posted to the Internet that Microsoft is in danger of being swept away
by open source.
Microsoft faces the same embrace-or-be-destroyed alternatives with open
source that it faced with the Internet years ago, argues David Stutz,
Microsoft's group program manager for the Shared Source Common Language
Initiative (CLI) until his recent retirement.
"Stop looking over your shoulder and invent something!" Stutz says in
the letter.
He also says, "Recovering from current external perceptions of Microsoft
as a paranoid, untrustworthy, greedy, petty, and politically inept
organization will take years."
Surprisingly, Microsoft said it agrees with much of Stutz's vision of
the future.
"Microsoft is in agreement with much of the position that David has of
the future. But Microsoft believes that breakthroughs will come mostly
through commercial software companies, like Microsoft," said a company
spokeswoman.
Retiring Microsoft executives commonly write letters about what they
believe Microsoft is doing right and wrong, the spokeswoman said.
Stutz's is unusual in that he chose to publish his -- or, rather a
self-described "sanitized version" of his letter -- to the Internet.
The Common Language Initiative is software designed to allow
applications written in different languages to interoperate; Stutz
headed up development of a version of the CLI for FreeBSD. Microsoft's
Shared Source program is designed as an alternative to open source;
under the program, licensees can inspect source code for Microsoft
software, but -- unlike with open source -- licensees cannot modify or
distribute the source code.
Microsoft faces the ongoing obsolescence of the shrink-wrap PC software
market, in favor of the Internet as the platform for software, Stutz
says.
"During this period, most core Microsoft products missed the Internet
wave, even while claiming to be leading the parade," he says. Office is
still document-centric, Windows is still PC-centric, and "Microsoft
developer tools have yet to embrace the loosely coupled mindset that
today's leading edge developers apply to work and play," Stutz says.
Open source has emerged as an alternative, albeit one that's "often
inferior" to Microsoft software, which is locked into its PC-centric
mode, Stutz said. "Microsoft still builds the world's best client
software, but the biggest opportunity is no longer the client. It still
commands the biggest margin, but networked software will eventually
eclipse client-only software," Stutz says.
"As the quality of this software improves, there will be less and less
reason to pay for core software-only assets that have become stylized
categories over the years," Stutz says. "Microsoft sells OFFICE (the
suite) while people may only need a small part of Word or a bit of
Access. Microsoft sells WINDOWS (the platform) but a small org might
just need a website, or a fileserver. It no longer fits Microsoft's
business model to have many individual offerings and to innovate with
new application software. Unfortunately, this is exactly where free
software excels and is making inroads. One-size-fits-all,
one-app-is-all-you-need, one-API-and-damn-the-torpedoes has turned out
to be an imperfect strategy for the long haul."
He also says, "Microsoft must survive and prosper by learning from the
open source software movement and by borrowing from and improving its
techniques. Open source software is as large and powerful a wave as the
Internet was, and is rapidly accreting into a legitimate alternative to
Windows. It can and should be harnessed." Simply fighting open source
through "litigation and proprietary protocols" is a strategy for
failure, Stutz says.
____________________________
New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
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