Download Squad

I know, the devil turned up the thermostat. In fact, this isn't as drastic as it sounds, nor is it "happening" in any real sense. The move is largely to shut up the griping European Union, who say Microsoft hasn't been complying with their antitrust settlement obligations. Funny, there are people in the DOJ here claiming the same thing... Come on, it's only taken 8 years, truckloads of money, and who knows how many hours (I'll figure it out in Excel when I get the chance) to get to this point, what's a little peek at the code between friends? Apparently this peek will still cost ya, a sum that no one is discussing, and add to the additional 12,000 pages of technical docs and 500 hours of tech support "licensees" can already get. One more thing: the source code promised may only include the communications protocols in Windows Workgroup Server and Windows Desktop, not every aspect of the inner workings of the OS. Besides that, the code will not be allowed to become public, which is really a more accurate definition of open source. But just think of what another decade, lots more money, and even more Excel spreadsheets could accomplish? That's right, ogg vorbis-native WMP, oh yeah! More happy brouhaha at Slashdot.

As per request, the image is from WIRED.