Open source setting the terms with Microsoft (Marten Mickos)

This is perhaps the first I’ve ever heard someone credibly say that Microsoft must now live by open source’s rules, or suffer. As Marten Mickos (CEO, MySQL) told The Register,

If you won’t work with MySQL, PHP and Ruby then you are lost.

Wow. Say those same words (and maybe add in “Linux,” “Apache,” and others) five years ago and Microsoft could have legitimately laughed.

But no more. Microsoft must partner with open source companies and communities, or it’s business will tank. Not immediately, of course, but imagine a world where Microsoft is an island of proprietary software, surrounded by the real world of web sites, business applications, etc. that all run open source software.

Suddenly, going it alone doesn’t look so pleasant.

And, as Marten said, Microsoft’s halfway (and often half-baked) stance on open source is already hurting it with its most important constituency: customers.

Speaking in the wake of claims in Fortune by Microsoft’s legal team that Linux and open source infringe on 235 of the company’s patents, Mickos suggested, though, that Microsoft isn’t going far enough in its efforts with open source, and that this will cost the company dearly.

“I don’t think you can say Microsoft is pragmatic on open source – it’s religious. It’s categorical in a way it shouldn’t be, and it’s harming them,” Mickos said.

“You must never lose the trust of the customer [even] customers who are not using open source. They are looking at Microsoft and asking: ‘why are you doing that?’ People have a sense of fairness, and you don’t want to get hurt.

“It hurts their credibility with customers. The question that arises is if Microsoft is ready to sue Linux for patent infringement, what says they won’t sue a customer? As an end user, I’d be worried if I was using a vendor that threatens to sue me.”

Five years ago, it was open source that was accused of being religious. Now it’s Microsoft.

Funny how things change.