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Microsoft’s original source code

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617 points EvgeniyZh | 3 comments | 03 Apr 25 21:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.44s | source
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santiagobasulto ◴[03 Apr 25 22:46 UTC] No.43576378[source]▶
Microsoft (and maybe even Bill Gates personally) generated a strong "dislike" sentiment to the hacker community. But we can't deny that he and Paul Allen were pure breed hackers and helped a lot the development of technology. Of course, we all prefer OSS and we'd pick Linus (or insert OSS dev name here) 100 times over one of the "evil capitalists"/s, but nevertheless they have to be recognized.
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1. bigstrat2003 ◴[04 Apr 25 00:03 UTC] No.43576921[source]▶
Meh, I don't prefer OSS. I prefer tools that work well, whatever they may be. For a long time, that was Windows. Microsoft went to hell, so now it's Linux. I'll happily use commercial solutions so long as they're good.
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2. muppetman ◴[04 Apr 25 02:41 UTC] No.43577794[source]▶
Yup! Which is why I use Linux but you better believe I've got Sublime Text installed (and licensed!)
3. bigger_cheese ◴[04 Apr 25 03:20 UTC] No.43578005[source]▶
In "In the Beginning was the Command Line" Neal Stephenson used a car analogy to describe consumer operating systems, I always thought his analogy was pretty apt:

To paraphrase him a little bit:

Microsoft sells Family Station Wagons. Spare parts are cheap and plentiful and if they breakdown there is a huge network of dealerships with mechanics on staff.

Apple sells Luxury Sedans - nicer to drive than the station wagons but spare parts are uncommon and the oil changes are expensive.

Linux is represented by a group of volunteer hackers organized by consensus giving away tanks for free made from sophisticated space aged materials.

The observation he makes is 90% of people go straight to the biggest dealership and buy a station wagon without ever looking at any of the other options. They will make a bunch of excuses like "I Don't know how to maintain a tank" and get angry when told "You don't know how to maintain a station wagon either", in the end their argument boils down to "can't you see everyone else is buying a station wagon"...