Should Microsoft make Windows 7 open source? The Free Software Foundation thinks so!

To open source Windows 7 would probably mean that 95% of the Windows 10 source would be released. You think Windows has security issues now...

 

I think there are other motivations at play. It would serve microsoft well if the only practical OS had to be connected to "the cloud" to work.

Do the math. If there are a billion computers, and 1 in 4 users would pay $10.00 per year to keep win 7, thats what, 2.5 bn per year, to simply maintain an exixting OS.

Did I get that right? I get lost in all those zeros.

 

What does this tell you about XP? Probably one of the most overrated operating systems of all time. I even thought Vista was an improvement over it, and that's saying something.

 

- I don't think MS will make Windows 7 open to other developers. It would provide too much competition for Windows 8 & 10.

 

Or not. Since common users generally don't care if something is open-source.

They will probably trust an OS from Microsoft way more than a 3rd party's OS even if it were based on W7

This seems more aim at privacy enthusiast.

 

A bleepingcomputer.com article today sums it up nicely that this is nothing more than "wishful thinking":

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...unshackle-windows-7-from-proprietary-tyranny/

 

Why freeing Windows 7 opens doors
February 13, 2020
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/why-freeing-windows-7-opens-doors

 

I see where are you coming from FSF. FSF is just calling Microsoft's bluff.

 

If - if windows 7 will get OS, then not sooner than oct/2021 because then is win7 embedded EOS. and after that date there will be paid 7-updates (like xp). so its very unlikely that win7 will be OS for the next 3 or 4 or more years. so - dont wait for it, same as xp.

 

I agree, but it is nice call from FSF anyway.

 

Albeit this is a strictly Windows 7 topic discussion, and a really good one too.

As a user who, yes your reading this right, never ever used a Windows 7 O/S at all before. (tinkered with a few customers 7 when they needed help), this leads us Windows 8 satisfied happy campers with a lump in our throat.

It's only a matter of time before we're next in the domino drop.

 

I would willingly pay, say, $25/year for MS to continue Win7 support. I'm an old dog & I have become too impatient to learn new stuff. Win7 knows what I want to do even before I do.

 

You just wrote the new Microsoft corporate tagline. They'll be filing for trademark on that.

 

That reply NAILS IT DOWN TIGHT!

You got it!

 

Was Win10 really that difficult for you?

 

No. The problem was -- to me, Win10 was different moreso than decisively better. Moreover, some of Win10's own patches broke it in the early days. Worse yet, MS annoyed me by repeatedly sending pop-ups, hidden inside updates to Win7, trying to lure me onto 10. Worst of all, I booted up 1 morning & Win 10 had displaced Win7, totally uninvited. That was computer rape, IMO.

 

Free Software Foundation sends hard drive to Microsoft to get Windows 7 source code:
https://mspoweruser.com/free-softwa...ve-to-microsoft-to-get-windows-7-source-code/
I guess they'll be out a hard drive.

 

Even so... in for a penny, in for a pound.

 

But we will be knowing for sure Microsoft does not love open-source contrary to their marketing claims.

 

That only applies to other people's products.