"In order to get distributed computing kicked off, it's going to look something similar to the XML protocol stack. [See Figure 1, XMLFund's XML "protocol stack" (http://xmlfund.com/roadmap/ ).] But the good news on the stack is that Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco Systems are all talking about it, and they fundamentally agree that's not where they're going to make money. They're going to make money adding value to that stack, in either professional services in terms of applications or value-added networking."

"Now I should add that open source is not for everything in software. We have a very large and successful software business, and we're going to retain that. But open source is great for infrastructure code. The reason is that to make open source work, there has to be an overlap between the people who care about the software and the people who make the software better."

"Heard today that Microsoft is recruiting some folks I know to help them think about how to deal with the "threat" of open source. This is so sad, and such a dumb move by a company that prides itself on smarts.

Some of the best work Microsoft has done is open source. The @#$%&* Net , which they profess to love, is full of open source stuff. It's not a threat. It's a building method. It's also necessary for building common infrastructure in and around the Net. There is a huge opportunity for Microsoft to participate in that work, which is not the exclusive job of the open source movement."