Microsoft is finally open to the idea of an open sourced Windows OS, but a top engineer from the Redmond company said that it will be far in the future.
During the ChefCon at California, Microsoft engineer Mark Russinovich said that Windows can possibly go the open source route.
Being open source is a big deal for Microsoft as it has been closed source since they started. Even OS X from Apple is closed source.
This means that the code used to run the operating system is only available to its developers. Nobody else will be able to modify the OS, according to CNET. One popular example of an open-source OS is Linux.
Technological communities have long been debating whether open-sourced software is an advantage or not. For Microsoft, however, being closed source gives then a competitive advantage from other tech giants.
Former Microsoft CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer had the same vision of keeping the Windows code private to their developers. This resulted in controlled OS releases and a controlled revenue cycle from their Windows products.
Russinovich believes that the Windows OS is too complex right now to be open sourced, according to Ars Technica.
"If you open source something but it comes with a build system that takes rocket scientists and three months to set up, what's the point?" said Russinovich.
It would certainly make headlines if Windows pushes through to that direction, but years of being closed source have given the tech giant billions of dollars of profit.