18.Feb.2000
Heise [Newsticker]
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Heise: Microsoft in court: Will the Windows sourcecode be made public?
«Bill Gates apparently agrees to make the Windows sourcecode public
if this can make an agreement in the anti-trust-proceedings against Microsoft
possible. At least the American business TV Bloomberg-TV made this claim
after an interview with the ex-Microsoft boss and current Chief Software
Architect of the software company from Redmond. The denial by Microsoft
came immediately: Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan rejected the
information as "not true". Gates only said that the company would do its
best to achieve an agreement with the US government.
Bloomberg, though, sticks to its report despite the denial. Bill Gates would
indeed have stated Microsoft would not make the Windows sourcecode public to compete
with other open-source-systems. According to Bloomberg, he emphasized that
the "closed" sourcecode would make Windows more reliable. But he would have
stated in reply to the question what would make a "reasonable" solution for
reaching a settlement out of court: "If we can have an agreement, we will
do our best to achieve it". After the end of the TV recording of the
interview, Gates would have replied to the direct question whether this
would include the disclosure of the Windows sourcecodes explicitely with
"yes". "If that is all that's necessary", Gates added according to Bloomberg
with a smile.»
Full article (in German) see titlelink.
Further links on the topic:
CNet: Could Microsoft open source code to settle?
ZDNet.com: Microsoft on 'Open Windows': Baloney!
(Translation: mb)
[News message: 18. Feb. 2000, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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