Microsoft: Open source 'not reliable or dependable'

A senior Microsoft executive told a BBC documentary that people should use commercial software if they’re looking for stability.

“I don’t think (open source) is anti-Microsoft in the sense that it’s giving people choices in the technologies that they use,” Jonathan Murray, the vice president and chief technology officer of Microsoft Europe, told BBC World in the first part of the documentary “The Code Breakers,” which aired this week.

“Some people want to use community-based software, and they get value out of sharing with other people in the community. Other people want the reliability and the dependability that comes from a commercial software model. And again, at the end of the day, you make the choice based on what has the highest value to you,” Murray continued.

It isn’t clear from Murray’s statement which category he believes commercial open-source companies such as Red Hat and MySQL fit into.

Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the One Laptop Per Child project, was also interviewed in the documentary, and he disagreed with Microsoft’s claim that open source is inferior.

Full story: CNET News.com