This move by Microsoft is kind of like Intel going to TSMC, which from a consumer point of view sounds promising, however, where I have problem is that I cannot download Edge source and compile it myself. I think this way this would mean we could have privacy focused forks that work well with the OS. Other problem I have is that this way Microsoft appropriated huge amount of work without paying a penny to the developers. I would have looked at it differently if they paid salaries and bonuses to contributors for several years. Microsoft wants to have the cool opensource kid badge, without paying fair share. That stinks.
It kind of reminds me of a situation where you want to help community on a hot day and put several 24 packs of bottles of cold water in your front yard with a card "free for everyone", and then watching like a shop owner comes with his truck and grabs all water and then go sell it in his store.
The spirit of open source used to be that enthusiasts built software out of passion to help themselves and others. If a contributor was given a choice - 1. Spend several years using up your free time, sacrificing contact with family, other hobbies to build this software and then have a multi billion company grab your software, badge it with their logo and make billions of off your hard work without giving you anything back, maybe a footnote and pat on the back. You spent your best hours on writing every single line, but you will never get to sip champagne. Or forget about open source and focus your mind on achieving something meaningful for yourself. I feel that many big companies spread this propaganda how great open source is and what an achievement is to contribute, where the main goal is to exploit people and obtain free IP without paying salaries and taxes. The badges on Github remind me of this short movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXIdmW4Hau0 picture soldiers as open source developers.
Its a common trend to use permissive licenses on your own code, and its understandable to do so as good will. But given the described problem, one might be better off with copyleft clauses and other restrictions in order to reduce abuse from big corp.
