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View Full Version : Does closed source somehow contribute to open source?



arnab_das
April 9th, 2010, 03:36 PM
Sounds insane, but really, say something like a windows or mac maybe indirectly contributing to open source. ubuntu (now) draws a lot of ideas from mac, windows has been the epitome of user-friendliness for a very long time now, etc. there are features of these systems which are being integrated (somewhat) into today's open source systems.

whats ur take?

swoll1980
April 9th, 2010, 03:41 PM
Sounds insane, but really, say something like a windows or mac maybe indirectly contributing to open source. ubuntu (now) draws a lot of ideas from mac, windows has been the epitome of user-friendliness for a very long time now, etc. there are features of these systems which are being integrated (somewhat) into today's open source systems.

whats ur take?

Microsoft has already directly contributed code to the Linux kernel.

BrokenKingpin
April 9th, 2010, 03:42 PM
I think the good closed source software drives the open source community to develop better software to compete with the closed source software. I don't know if that qualifies as contributing, but it sure forces open source software to get better.

undecim
April 9th, 2010, 03:42 PM
Microsoft has already directly contributed code to the Linux kernel.

Sweet. Now I can blame MS for kernel panics too

mcoleman44
April 9th, 2010, 03:43 PM
Microsoft has already directly contributed code to the Linux kernel.
Really? What?

undecim
April 9th, 2010, 03:46 PM
Really? What?

IIRC it's code that makes Linux run better in Microsoft's Virtual Machine software.

swoll1980
April 9th, 2010, 03:50 PM
Really? What?

Microsoft's customers wanted better Linux support in Microsoft's Virtual PC, so They submitted some patches to satisfy the demand.

mcoleman44
April 9th, 2010, 03:51 PM
IIRC it's code that makes Linux run better in Microsoft's Virtual Machine software.Well that was nice of them! :)

gnomeuser
April 9th, 2010, 03:54 PM
There are plenty of examples of this, e.g. Fluendo sells licensed codec packs which out of legal requirement have to be closed source, the profit from that goes into improving amongst other things GStreamer, PiTiVi and Moovida.

You have cases such as Oracle wanting their high performance database to run as optimally as possible on Linux, so they invest quite a bit of money improving Linux. In fact they have a great number of high profile kernel hackers employed just for this purpose.

Bachstelze
April 9th, 2010, 03:55 PM
And Apple directly contributes to Open Source in a lot of ways. See http://opensource.apple.com, and CUPS.

Frogs Hair
April 9th, 2010, 04:03 PM
Sourceforge is full of apps for Mac, Windows, and linux , so I would say yes !