Fat chance? Hmm. Windows 7, the fan-favorite operating system, finally reached end of support earlier this month on January 14, with Microsoft recommending home users to upgrade to Windows 10.
All the while releasing updates for this OS only for paying customers.
However, the Free Software Foundation are seeing this differently, and believe that everyone can continue receiving patches for this now classic operating platform if Microsoft allows the community to maintain it.
In other words, the FSF wants Microsoft open source one of its most popular products ever.
If anything, the organization has gone a step further and accuse Microsoft of way too many wrongdoings with Windows 7 like poisoning education, invading privacy, and threatening user security. They are of the opinion that this is a chance for the Redmond based company to atone for these mistakes.
This is what they say in a petition:
“Microsoft’s support of Windows 7 is over, but its life doesn’t have to end. We call on Microsoft to upcycle it instead.
We call on them to release it as free software, and give it to the community to study and improve. As there is already a precedent for releasing some core Windows utilities as free software, Microsoft has nothing to lose by liberating a version of their operating system that they themselves say has ‘reached its end.”
Strong words, but the petition already has around 10,000 signatures.
While open sourcing Windows 7 would allow the community to study, modify, and share code in the operating system. At the same time, the software titan would get a chance to respect the freedom and privacy of users.
At the time of writing, the petition has nearly 5,000 supporters.
Of course, near impossible to see Microsoft making such a move. There are a million different reasons why this will not work, at this stage in time. And one of the primary one is that Windows 7 shares much of the same code with Windows 10, and open sourcing it would expose its successors.
Fat chance, indeed.
