Microsoft: Open source 'not reliable or dependable'

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Ingrid Marson ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 19 May 2006 13:30 BST

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A senior Microsoft executive told a BBC World documentary that people should use commercial software if they're looking for stability.

"I don't think [open source] is anti-Microsoft in the sense that it's giving people choices in the technologies that they use," Jonathan Murray, the vice-president and chief technology officer of Microsoft Europe, told BBC World in the first part of the documentary "The Code Breakers", which aired this week.

"Some people want to use community-based software, and they get value out of sharing with other people in the community. Other people want the reliability and the dependability that comes from a commercial software model. And again, at the end of the day you make the choice based on what has the highest value to you," Murray continued.

It isn't clear from Murray's statement which category he believes commercial open source companies, such as Red Hat and MySQL, fit in to.

Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the One Laptop Per Child project, was also interviewed in the documentary, and disagreed with Microsoft's claim that open source is inferior.

"We've chosen free and open software because it's better, and because it means the children can participate in making the software better over time," said Negroponte.

Kenneth Cukier, a technology correspondent for The Economist, weighed in halfway between the two by claiming that open source offers similar functionality to proprietary software.

"One can consider open source software a lot like generic drugs. The analogy fits," said Cukier in the documentary. "Open source software... is essentially the same product — it does the same thing on a computer — but it costs less," Cukier told BBC World.

The documentary also included footage of Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation, giving a speech, and interviews with people working on open source projects in developing countries, such as the Schoolnet Namibia project and the Digital Doorway project in South Africa.

Part 2 of "The Code Breakers" is due to be screened next week on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Programme times can be found on the BBC World Web site.

Currently the documentary is only available on BBC World, which isn't broadcast in the UK.

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