Open-Source Attack Dog Enters Ballmer's Inner Ring

...While Rudder helped build .NET, Mundie hit the headlines in 2001 when he tried to steer third-party programmers towards Microsoft’s new architecture by scaring them off using open-source and free software, which was raising its profile thanks to Linux.

Setting out Microsoft’s position at New York University, Mundie claimed open source resulted in “unhealthy forking” of code and the “viral” nature of the free software movement's GPL threatened developers' intellectual property and undermined commercial product development.

Speaking as Microsoft was ramping up its campaign against open source and Linux – Ballmer called Linux a “cancer” – while promoting .NET, Mundie said the open-source software model: “Isn’t successful in building a mass market and making powerful, easy-to-use software broadly accessible to consumers.”...