Perl played the role of poster child for the open source revolution quite well, thank you very much. Microsoft is now trying to come up with a coherent anti-opensource policy that doesn't involve developing, distributing, and supporting software at competitive (ie pretty low) profit margins.

While Perl itself does Microsoft no harm, I could well understand some there seeing it as the thin edge of the wedge for open source solutions. After all in learning Perl you learn a good chunk of the essence of Unix. Plus you get exposed to radicals who honestly think it is OK to develop good software and just let people use it for free, which makes you more inclined to make decisions that avoid contributing to the Microsoft gravy train.

Now assuredly this is stupid and counter-productive on technical grounds. I would be shocked and amazed if Microsoft didn't have people who really believed it was a Good Idea for Microsoft to support open source software. Including Perl.

But it isn't that unreasonable for some of them to want to make sure that Perl is caught in the cross-fire. And judging from one EULA on one key product, that contingent may have more influence than I would like.

In reply to Re (tilly) 2: Microsoft vs. Perl and sloppy programming - Wildly OT by tilly
in thread Microsoft vs. Perl and sloppy programming - Wildly OT by Ovid

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