Microsoft has become a company that produces technological advances as a side-effect of their primary goal, which is making money. They are not really interested in sharing, or promoting innovation - they are interested in generating lock-in, collecting licensing fees, and stamping out the competition.
What I find truly disappointing is that there are so many brilliant, creative people letting their work be owned and controlled by companies like Microsoft.
Open source projects get admiration and passion because they are OPEN. The top priority is to share the discovery or creation and promote productivity and innovation among others.
Actually, my understanding of Microsoft Research is that their main focus is on promoting and sharing innovative ideas. A MSR researcher's performance is reviewed based on academic publications and the amount of impact that their work has on the communities in which their work lies. If their work happens to help one of MS's products, then that is a bonus.
That's what I've been told at least by someone who works for MSR in Seattle. In fact, some of the most passionate people in my field of study (I'm a graduate student in electrical/computer engineering) work for MSR.
^^ this. I didn't known about MSR until I became a grad student in comp sci and started seeing the name pop up time and again in the literature whether it was graphics, computer vision, AI, etc etc.
If you like computer science, you like MSR. (Plus, they gave the world F# and C# which are an oasis in the world of enterprise development)
Microsoft has become a company that produces technological advances as a side-effect of their primary goal, which is making money. They are not really interested in sharing, or promoting innovation - they are interested in generating lock-in, collecting licensing fees, and stamping out the competition.
What I find truly disappointing is that there are so many brilliant, creative people letting their work be owned and controlled by companies like Microsoft.
Open source projects get admiration and passion because they are OPEN. The top priority is to share the discovery or creation and promote productivity and innovation among others.