08-02-2009, 12:09 AM
Actually, MS had to provide the drivers because they violated the GPL. MS tried to play it off as a goodwill gesture, but really it was to dodge a lawsuit. I actually agree with Linus Torvalds on this issue. I respect Microsoft for some of there software. Exchange is brilliant. MS Office is also pretty nice. Windows is a trainwreck. What I don't like is that MS uses there enormous market share and their horde of cash to influence the market to crush competition. I don't understand why no one can make a better version of Exchange. Office should be easy to out do also. Yet no one has done it. Open Office is getting closer all the time, but Microsoft just keeps buying, bribing, and lobbying their way into dominance with Office. I keep expecting Apple to do something like Exchange, but every software company seems to avoid it like the plague. Novell and IBM tried. IBM's effort has languished for years. Novell abandoned their effort entirely. I strongly suspect that once Ballmer is gone (and that should be 1-2 years max) Microsoft will rise up off of it's bruised rear-end and produce some great software. I would have no problem using Microsoft software if it didn't herd me into a corner and prevent me from getting out. I want them to write better software and embrace some open file formats so that I can bring files in and out freely. As it is, I feel that most of their software has not improved in about 5 years and they've just been spending time trying to figure out how to keep earning money.