A peek under the bonnet of Microsoft

By ADAM GIFFORD

Some of Microsoft's New Zealand customers will be given the chance to view the software giant's source code.

Managing director Geoff Lawrie said last week that this country was one of 12 in the "Shared Source" pilot, although "it is not a huge issue for our customer base today."

In the past, Microsoft has let only big hardware manufacturers and its largest customers look under the hood.

By contrast, the Open Source movement holds that users should see and, if able, improve on code.

Software developed under Open Source includes the Linux operating system and the Apache web server which powers most internet sites.

Announcing the pilot, Microsoft's senior vice-president of advanced strategies, Craig Mundie, said Shared Source was not Open Source.

He tried to link Open Source to dotcom failures, and said it could lead to "unhealthy 'forking' of a code base," resulting in the development of multiple incompatible versions of programs, weakened interoperability, product instability, and hindering businesses' ability to plan strategically.

It also had "inherent security risks and can force intellectual property into the public domain."

But protection of intellectual property was a fundamental of the innovation model - "that you have opportunity to make money off your research and development efforts."

Mr Lawrie said the GPL (GNU Public Licence), the most well known Open Source licensing model, required developers to give away their code.

Open Source advocate Eric Raymond said Mr Mundie's speech was "an FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) masterpiece aimed at keeping a desktop software market monopoly.

The FUD argument tried to blur the distinctions between Open Source development, use of the GPL, wholesale copyright law violations and outright software piracy.

Most Open Source developers supported intellectual property rights, including copyright, he said.

Shared Source was "source under glass" - you can see it, but you can't modify or reuse it in other programs.

"The open-source community saw this as 'a scam' aimed at recruiting free labour for Microsoft without giving outside contributors any stake in or control of the results of their effort."

The Free Software Foundation president, Richard Stallman, author of GPL, said Microsoft did not understand the GPL. "They are simply trying to scare people out of dealing with a competitor they can't buy, can't intimidate, and can't stop."

Linux inventor Linus Torvalds said Mr Mundie's case for patents ignored most modern science and technology's being founded on shared knowledge.

"He wants you to forget about all the work done by people like Einstein, Rutherford, Bohr, Leonardo da Vinci."

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