[zgramana]

Microsoft skeptics fail to realize that most of the mid- and upper-level executives increasingly spent their entire career using, creating, and contributing to F/OSS software. Many of them were involved with early MSFT OSS efforts back in 2008-2010, and many came from deep Linux/OSS community via acquisition (Nat Friedman). Hell, the creator of GNOME, Miguel de Icaza, someone who bears the scars of the Microsoft War on OSS, now resides happily at Microsoft now.

For whatever faults MSFT has today, any sort of antipathy or guile towards OSS or Linux is not one among them. Credit where credit is due. Too many are stuck reliving past glories.

If you want an actual OSS bogeyman, you need only direct your attention to Oracle. Too many transferred their goodwill towards Sun to a company has, among other things, tried to claim Java’s APIs as their own intellectual property. That’s a company that still merits this kind of hand-wringing.

[kilburn]

Some Microsoft skeptics are more thoughtful than you concede. For an example, I strongly suggest you to watch the "Linux Sucks. Forever" talk by Bryan Lunduke [1] (who worked at MS some ~5 years).

If you don't have the time, the most interesting part starts at 7:29 [2] with a tour of the many ways Microsoft attacked Linux in the past, while from 13:55 [3] on he goes into how he thinks Microsoft (and others) are hurting Linux today.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVHcdgrqbHE

[2] https://youtu.be/TVHcdgrqbHE?t=449

[3] https://youtu.be/TVHcdgrqbHE?t=829

[blub]

Actually, the only two well-known OSS guys that work for MS are the ones you mentioned. Their reputation is far from flawless, in fact for a long time they were considered to be a negative influence on OSS because of their MS-focus.

Seeing you present them as champions is kinda funny...

Microsoft got a bit smarter since their anti-trust days. They saw that giving away OSS kept everyone off Google's back and allowed them to focus on building an immense spying machine.

Now they're applying the same recipe with some success (software people are suckers for OSS trinkets), but they started from such a poor image that it will take a while for all the dirt to wash off.

I'd be really impressed if MS made Windows open source. Maybe that way someone could finally disable that pesky telemetry spyware.

Oracle is all about money and it's obvious to everyone that they're not good guys. The ones to watch out for are the insidious ones like Google or MS.

[cookiecaper]

Microsoft is in the Linux camp now because the Windows camp is dead for serious enterprise uses. Windows objectively failed to keep pace with the cutting edge. To Microsoft's credit, their leadership sees this and is working to build a viable replacement business model through the combination of Azure and data harvesting.

Reality is that the raw technical reality has forced MS to the open-source table. The fight played out and Windows lost -- Microsoft lives on.

Perhaps neither camp is happy with the situation, but if we're being honest, there's probably not anything that anyone can do about it.