If microsoft goes out of busniess?

Dave3434 · Post by **Dave3434** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:20 am

what will happen if microsoft goes out of busniess will there products become free and open? the idea just came to me.

jonaspm · Post by **jonaspm** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:39 am

Maybe another company would buy it

PurpleGurl · Post by **PurpleGurl** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:52 am

jonaspm wrote:Maybe another company would buy it

That would be likely, though I don't expect Microsoft to fall any time soon. Some may start to do dirty disassembly and stuff during the "limbo" period, but that would be unwise, since new owners could rise up and sue everyone.

Dave3434 · Post by **Dave3434** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 10:02 am

that's missedup.

SomeGuy · Post by **SomeGuy** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 4:27 pm

Dave3434 wrote:will there products become free and open?

No.

This has happened over, and over with many smaller OSes. The code remains locked up in some vault with a few lawyers protecting whatever "intellectual property" there is, even after it is worthless, in hopes of making a few bucks.

A good example of this is BeOS. When they went out of business the source code went with them. Now Haiku OS is attempting to clone it an open-source way just like ReactOS.

Dave3434 · Post by **Dave3434** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:56 am

i know microsoft is evil but they do have to give up something?

Post by **Z98** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 4:58 am

And why is Microsoft evil? And why do they need to give up anything? Ownership of the Windows source code is theirs after all.

SomeGuy · Post by **SomeGuy** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 5:34 am

There are a lot of reasons why Microsoft is evil.

But that is completely not relevant.

Current copyright laws give whoever owns code the privileged of sitting on it for all eternity, and striking down any violators. If you want to try and reform copyright laws, please be my guest.

It blows my mind how many people think Microsoft is going to be magically generous and do things like open source their code, or permit users to continue activating Windows XP after they drop support. They have zero obligation to do anything like that. And in the few times they have, they are doing it for some larger reason, not because they are being generous. Of course, Microsoft wants you to think all that so you feel nice and secure even as they tighten your shackles.

Dave3434 · Post by **Dave3434** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:43 am

i agree with someguy anyway it's just a thought it's a shame they can't give up windows 2000 or even xp sonce they don't care for those products anymore it's like taking something that still useful and throw it in the trash, just because it's old. i hate microsoft not just because there closed source but because there products are over priced and your able to install the copy of windows on more then one pc. when vista came on the scence i was not impressed and then 7 came along i got the same impression. and now 8 is worse.

Dave3434 · Post by **Dave3434** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:46 am

and having to pay for software that's not fully yours to modify and use in anyway you want is something i can't agree with.

Black_Fox · Post by **Black_Fox** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 4:23 pm

Dave3434 wrote:i agree with someguy anyway it's just a thought it's a shame they can't give up windows 2000 or even xp sonce they don't care for those products anymore it's like taking something that still useful and throw it in the trash, just because it's old. i hate microsoft not just because there closed source but because there products are over priced and your able to install the copy of windows on more then one pc. when vista came on the scence i was not impressed and then 7 came along i got the same impression. and now 8 is worse.
and having to pay for software that's not fully yours to modify and use in anyway you want is something i can't agree with

Then why are you here? We all in some way like Microsoft product(s), that's why we want to mimick them. There are many better suited forums where you can all together bash Microsoft all day happily

b4dc0d3r · Post by **b4dc0d3r** » Fri Sep 21, 2012 3:53 am

Windows 2000 is not some old product that was replaced with XP or Vista or Windows 7. Many of the core concepts, and actual code, are still present in current Windows home and server versions. If they release the entire codebase, all of the code, including the stuff that powers the current versions of Windows, becomes open under whatever license they choose. Only the new things added would remain proprietary.

And, since Microsoft has a tendency to acquire companies, Microsoft tends not to own all of its technologies. A lot of the code is patented by some company or other, and Microsoft has non-transferrable rights to those patents under some sort of agreement. Or is in a lawsuit over it right now. So they don't even own all of the property you are asking them to give away.

My favorite example is the Visual Studio C++ stdlib headers. With VC 5.0, they were licensed from DinkumWare. I don't think they ever had permission to release updates with VC 6.0 and the 6 service packs. So thinks like <vector> and <deque> were broken when using VS 5 and 6 compilers, and they had no legal way to fix it other than pointing users to Dinkumware's site.

Intellectual property law is very complicated, especially for a company that makes acquisitions. As we saw in the SCO debacle, what IP rights get transferred during a purchase can be vague enough to warrant a years long trial to clear up ownership.

If Microsoft goes out of business, all of their IP would be in limbo (orphaned) until it either expires or is bought. And the price tag would be a hefty one indeed.

Dave3434 · Post by **Dave3434** » Fri Sep 21, 2012 4:04 am

i'm not trying to bash anyone reactos free and open microsoft is not.

tomleem · Post by **tomleem** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 6:38 pm

I think it would be a great opportunity for other companies to come in and fill the void left by Microsoft.

Perhaps IBM could buy Microsofts software?

alexei · Post by **alexei** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 12:21 pm

Then why are you here? We all in some way like Microsoft product(s), that's why we want to mimick them. There are many better suited forums where you can all together bash Microsoft all day happily

Making products we like does not entitle Microsoft to be liked. 1st of all people pay MS, so they are at least even (taking in account MS monopoly de facto, MS rips people off). We all know MS does not work for people, but for its profits. Its policies are often (to say it softly) not good to us. Why shouldn't we bash it

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