Editing Shared source

'''Shared source''' is a term popularized by [[Microsoft]] to mean basically a vendor-controlled [[consortium]] with conventions and agreements almost as strong as [[mandatory patent license]] methods, but in fact relying solely on that one vendor's judgement.  It claims the primary advantage of being [[self-funding]] while [[free software]] and much [[open source]] are not, relying on what Microsoft calls 'unsustainable' donations and volunteer effort exclusively.

One legitimate place where shared source seems to beat all other [[license]] models is in [[usability]] - the most popular user interfaces in the world come from [[Apple]] and [[Microsoft]] and are exactly this kind of tightly vendor-controlled pseudo-consortium, using [[patent]], [[trademark]] and [[copyright]] all quite strongly to ensure that there is no [[bad copy problem]] in the GUI.

For instance, if you ship a Windows application without "File, Edit, View..." on the menu line, have fun trying to call it Win-anything...