Daniel Robbins hired by M$

[Alex Beamish]

On 6/14/05, Chris Friedt <Chfriedt-0jnyayh6ARPqzrOJbVgLALDks+cytr/Z at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> I don't know if anyone noticed on slashdot this morning, but Daniel
> Robbins, founder of Gentoo Linux has recently been hired by Microsoft.
> 
> I guess it's not surprising, considering that one of MS's many business
> strategies has usually been to buy out / reverse engineer any
> competition or new ideas. Gentoo is mainly know for using portage - a
> sophisticated dependency tree and package management system.
> 
> I suppose the person who originally came up with the idea for BSD's
> ports would have had an offer if BSD had been as popular w/ the masses
> as Linux.
> 
> As much as i feel that he's 'crossed over to the dark side', I'm still
> somewhat glad that he's transferred all of his intellectual property
> rights to the gentoo foundation.
> 
> 
> Any thoughts?

This has been said on SlashDot already, but, for better or for worse,
Microsoft has a habit of hiring bright people. Perhaps this hire will
be one more drop in the bucket that will tilt Microsoft towards open
source.

However, keep in mind that one of Bill Gates' early experience with
open source was a bad one -- a paper tape copy of his and Paul Allen's
BASIC for the Altair was nicked, way back when.

In addition, Microsoft may still have to learn how it's possible to
make money from open source software. While they maintain a monopoly
on the desktop, they may not feel the urge to change their business
model.

Alex
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