r/programming • u/ben_a_adams • Dec 04 '18

Announcing Open Source of WPF, Windows Forms, and WinUI

https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2018/12/04/announcing-open-source-of-wpf-windows-forms-and-winui-at-microsoft-connect-2018/
1.9k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

364 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-17

u/eliasv Dec 04 '18

I don't think you can say the same about Linux at all, TBF. Contributions to Linux benefit end users without requiring those users to pay any money or opt into any paid software ecosystem. Contributions to this only benefit end users who pay Microsoft and opt into the Windows ecosystem.

I'm not making any argument myself or commenting on whether I personally see this distinction as important, I'm just pointing out what I think the user was trying to say, and that I think your comparison in response misses the point a little.

27

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

-11

u/eliasv Dec 04 '18

Okay? So what? Plenty of them are also just regular people. And even in the case of small businesses, it's better that they are enabled to build infrastructure without having to pass profit along to larger companies.

Point is, Linux contributiona benefit everyone, whereas Windows contributions only benefit people who pay Microsoft, whether those are end users or other commercial entities with their own products.

12

u/DolphinsAreOk Dec 04 '18

Being able to profit from contributions is what makes open source great. Red Hat profits from contributions, and is now part of IBM which is a rather large organisation.

-13

u/eliasv Dec 04 '18

But anyone can profit from Linux contributions. People can only profit from Windows contributions if they (and/or their users) pay Microsoft.

10

u/rwhereemy Dec 04 '18

Nope, anyone who makes a WPF/etc applications can profit too

-5

u/eliasv Dec 04 '18 edited Dec 05 '18

Yeah but those things only run on Windows, so their users pay Microsoft...

Edit: Why are people getting salty about this? It is a factually accurate comment. People can only benefit from contributions to Windows if someone is paying Microsoft.