Reading Microsoft’s ‘open’ window

Kelly McNeill writes “Microsoft’s recent announcement that it would allow some corporate customers to view the source code to its Windows operating system was met with derision by the open-source community. Access to the code was severely limited, and nobody was allowed to modify it, so what was the point? In fact, this could mark the beginning of Microsoft’s move towards a new model, between proprietary code and full open source: something I will call “read-only source.” Read-only source is what it sounds like. Anyone can view the source code, but nobody can modify it, and no copyright or intellectual property rights are granted.”