Windows 7 has reached its end of service deadline on January 14 and things have since gotten interesting. From the free Windows 10 upgrade offer that was supposed to expire in 2016 to people asking Microsoft to open the operating system, who knew that removing the plug would end up giving Windows even more life 7.
We reported a few weeks ago that the Free Software Foundation and other groups were asking Microsoft to open Windows 7 to “fix past wrongs.” The Foundation has now delivered a hard drive to Microsoft asking the company to copy the source code and give it a license note to prove that “they really like free software. “
Here is the full statement (via MSPU; the focus is on us)
This afternoon [Feb, 13] we will send a recycled hard drive with the signatures to the Microsoft offices. It’s as simple as copying the source code, giving it a license notice, and sending it back to us. As the author of the most popular free software license in the world, we are ready to help them as much as possible. They just have to ask.
We want them to show exactly how much they love the open source software they advertise. If they really like free software – and we’re ready to give them the benefit of the doubt – they can show it to the world. We hope they don’t just capitalize on the free software development model in the most superficial and usable way: using it as a marketing tool to make us think they care about our freedom.
Together, we defended our principles. They can reject us or ignore us, but they cannot stop us. We will continue to campaign until we are all free.
Microsoft may be using the free software model as a marketing strategy, but the company can’t just open an operating system that continues to power 1 in 4 computers worldwide. The company has also reused some of the code in Windows 10, which makes things even more delicate.
The FSF seems to be aware of this, adding in its declaration that its campaign has been described as “quixotic and even” completely delusional “”, but it says that there are people who “have recognized” pragmatic idealism “which is at the heart of the FSF message. “The Foundation declares that” all software is free software “, including all operating systems.
Well, Microsoft has come around the Linux problem, so who knows …
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