found a link on osnews to this.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1360420,00.asp

maybe a bit more than till now but
quote:"To be eligible for the Windows code, MVPs must maintain their status as a Windows Server System, Windows or Visual developer MVP and they must reside in an eligible country."
thats leaves a lot of reasons to not give the code to people and only about 35 people are allowed to get the sources ... thats not really open or?

no.

but it is a start right??

no

nope, just as closed as always.

My only comments are:
- Microsoft selects who is an MVP. There is no open signup or registration.
- There is no mention of nondisclosure or restrictions imposed on those that view the source.

nope

If MS were to open windows, it would allow people to have a choice, as they could then select their platform based on technical merits. MS has a monopoly, so there's no real reason why they would want to risk allowing other platforms the chance to compete. On the other hand, if they give people the impression of being open, there's a chance that people might stick with windows a little longer to see what happens. If that retains their market share long enough to lock out any possible competition, then they win.

And that's all this is. A chance to act like open source, with no real risk to the status quo. Until MS's business model starts taking serious financial hits, the code is going to stay safely locked up. As far as the companies that do get a peek, you can almost bet that they're tied to MS products in such a way that having access to the code is more for marketing purposes than technical ones. "Our product is deeply integrated with windows' source code", and so on.

If Windows went open, it might finally become less buggy.....But it would still suck a lot.