Open-Source Group Sends Microsoft Blank Hard Drive to Copy Windows 7 Source Code

The Free Software Foundation publicly requested Microsoft to open-source Windows 7 shortly after the 2009 operating system reached the end of support on January 14, and now the group is ready for the next move.

Last week, the FSF mailed Microsoft a blank hard drive which the company should use for copying Windows 7 source code and then sending it back to the organization.

“Microsoft can free Windows. They already have all of the legal rights necessary or the leverage to obtain them. Whether they choose to do so or not is up to them,” the Free Software Foundation explains.

“We’re ready to give them all of the help we can. All they have to do is ask,” the group continues.

Microsoft loves open source

While Microsoft is unlikely to open-source Windows 7, the Free Software Foundation says they received an overwhelming response to their request for the software giant to hand over the keys for the 2009 operating system to the open-source community.

“In the past weeks, we’ve given them the message that thousands of people around the world want Windows to be freed. Next, we’ll give them the medium,” the FSF continues.

Microsoft obviously hasn’t responded to this request for open-sourcing Windows 7, but the company should do it anyway, the open-source foundation says. And it’s all because of how important they say the open-source world has become to them.

“We want them to show exactly how much love they have for the “open source” software they mention in their advertising. If they really do love free software — and we’re willing to give them the benefit of the doubt — they have the opportunity to show it to the world. We hope they’re not just capitalizing on the free software development model in the most superficial and exploitative way possible: by using it as a marketing tool to fool us into thinking that they care about our freedom,” FSF notes.

But while Windows 7 has reached the end of support, custom support is still offered to enterprises paying for it. Microsoft will continue to release updates in exchange for a free for three more years, after which even paying customers will be left with no security patches.