[dpower]

>have suffered from proprietary software companies not supporting their OS/distros (Adobe, Microsoft, just to pick a few)

And here lies the main point - they believe that many users will simply reject their proprietary software on principle. If the community was seen to embrace proprietary, which is what I'm calling for in the article, they might just support Linux.

Also worth noting that the largest contributor to the Linux kernel is... Microsoft.

[ppseafield]

> many users will simply reject their proprietary software on principle.

Yes, because we've grown tired of companies abusing their relationships with customers: abandoning products and leaving them useless, charging more and more for the same or less levels of support, removing features, suing users for repairing their own property... The list goes on. Sure, similar issues can happen with FOSS, but at least you have some recourse if the creators disappear.

> Also worth noting that the largest contributor to the Linux kernel is... Microsoft.

Yes, but only now. And only because they did what they could to kill Linux, and they still lost. That former behavior is the kind of thing we like to never be an issue in the first place.

[pjmlp]

Linux would never had taken off without the contributions of companies like IBM, Intel, Oracle, SGI, Cray,....

Which aren't properly any FOSS angels, when we examine their product portfolio.

Actually IBM is the king of patent submissions.

[ppseafield]

Sure, but it probably also wouldn't have taken off without its license either.

[pjmlp]

In that I agree, only because it is a copyleft license.

[ekianjo]

A Linux distro is far from being limited to the kernel so your reference to Microsoft is kind of meaningless here.