TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Connecticut Man Sells Micrsoft Windows Source Code

Re: Connecticut Man Sells Micrsoft Windows Source Code

Barry Margolin (barmar@alum.mit.edu)
Wed, 31 Aug 2005 19:13:33 -0400

In article <telecom24.396.11@telecom-digest.org>, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
wrote:

> Associated Press NewsWire wrote:

>> A Connecticut man known on the Internet as "illwill" pleaded guilty in
>> Manhattan federal court on Monday to charges relating to the theft of
>> the source code to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating software,
>> considered among the company's crown jewels.

> I believe IBM always made the source code available for its mainframe
> operating systems. Competitors could and would use it for supplemental
> utility programs. They would write links and exits to/from the
> operating system for maximum program efficiency.

When IBM did this, they were a hardware company. The OS was just
something that made their hardware useful to the customer, it wasn't
considered valuable on its own. And if third-party vendors made use
of it to make more applications and peripherals available, it meant
that IBM would sell even *more* computers. So there was little down
side to making the OS available.

But Microsoft is a software company. All they have is their software,
and if someone else starts selling it, those are sales that Microsoft
has lost.

Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***

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