Cambalache 3,14 - La vidriera irrespetuosa

Microsoft comprará TeX por una suma millonaria y planea una unión amistosa de TeX y Office
El nuevo producto se venderá a un precio aproximado de 800 $ y se empezará a distribuir en 2007. El desarrollo se efectuará en la India:

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, USA (CNEWS/MSNBC) -- In a major move into the scientific publishing market, Microsoft Corporation announced today that it has purchased all rights to the computer language and document compiler known as TeX (pronounced, tech), and plans a major new product line based on the 25-year old software.

Stanford Professor Donald Knuth (pronounced, kah-nooth), the author of the widely-used TeX software, in a joint press conference at the university campus with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, acknowledged that the two had been negotiating for some months. I felt that a quarter century of TeX in the public domain was enough. I am reasserting the copyright to my original work in TeX. Microsoft will carry the ball now, and I can get back to my computer science research.

Knuth acknowledged he was paid a handsome sum from Microsoft, which he will use to finance his work on a project he has code-named Volume 4. He declined to comment any further or answer any question. Close associates indicated that he was disappointed in what the TeX community had done with his creation, citing the dominance and stagnation of LaTeX as example. Most TeX documents now employ a flavor called LaTeX, whose version 3 was announced about ten years ago and has never been released.

At the press conference, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said the acquisition was the kind of cooperation between academia and industry that builds prosperity for both. He added that TeX would finally give Microsoft a foothold in mathematical desktop publishing that has eluded the software giant since its founding. Drawing gasps of surprise from the college audience, Gates asserted that TeX will soon be biggest jewel in the Microsoft crown.