stupid questions ...

[Kemp Randy-W18971]

Is this the same Microsoft that complained to the government about the decision to allow government firms to bid on open source software, in place of commercial software (published somewhere in www.mysql.com website a while back).  Does Microsoft hold two sets of standards when it comes to open source?  If it benefits them, it is OK, but if it affects their bottom line, then it is a bad thing?

-----Original Message-----
From: Armin Steinhoff [mailto:a-steinhoff at web.de]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 3:14 AM
To: python-list at python.org
Subject: stupid questions ...



After reading that ... I have some questions about ActiveState.


>From the ActiveState home page:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ActiveState and Microsoft Form a Perl of Relationship, William Peterson, IDC
Flash, June 1999

Summary:  What effect will Microsoft and ActiveState's ActivePerl agreement have
on the Open Source community?

ActiveState Corp. and Microsoft have signed an agreement to further integrate
Perl (practical extraction and report language) with the Windows operating
system. IDC wonders what effect this agreement will have on Open Source
developers working on Perl. Additionally, IDC wonders if this type of agreement
between an Open Source development company and Microsoft is the beginning of a
larger Open Source strategy by Microsoft.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Q]:
 - Is ActiveState (still?) financially independent from MS ??
 - what is the real 'open source' strategy of MS regarding Perl + Python ?
 - after reading ActiveState statements like "blowing the others (OS) away" ..
   what is the strategy of ActiveState against(?) non MS operating systems ?? 

Armin