Could Microsoft make/save a buck($$$) out of Reactos?

[ideam]

So there it is the one million dollar question.
(or schould we say one billion in Microsofts case)

IMHO, yes they can.

They could make money out of Reactos if they would
a. sell packs of DLL's and Exe's that are currently free downloads if you have a legal Windows only
b. give Reactos support to integrate it on lots of devices, later sell windows to those platforms
c. sell support for Reactos

They could save money out of Reactos
a. no need to make "special" versions of windows to follow with court rules or small markets, just point to the
free customizable reactos (no IE, mediaplayer..., ).
b. develop or test new app's and features first on reactos, without a 'Vista' risk bringing them out and failing
at great expense
c. attract new, young developers. train them first in reactos, then move the best to windows. Less need for
a long and costly training period.

These are just a few ideas. Maybe you guys can think of more...

[Phalanx]

So there it is the one million dollar question.
a. sell packs of DLL's and Exe's that are currently free downloads if you have a legal Windows only
b. give Reactos support to integrate it on lots of devices, later sell windows to those platforms
c. sell support for Reactos

These ideas would not create an improvement because:
a - Replacements would then be created, or people would by the windows licence/software (which ever is cheaper, they will never end ahead).
b - Would still mean they are not selling many they could have.
c - Would be flooded with many groups, cause if they can do it, someone else can too.

a. no need to make "special" versions of windows to follow with court rules or small markets, just point to the
free customizable reactos (no IE, mediaplayer..., ).
b. develop or test new app's and features first on reactos, without a 'Vista' risk bringing them out and failing
at great expense
c. attract new, young developers. train them first in reactos, then move the best to windows. Less need for
a long and costly training period.

a - Still would have to make different versions to compete with different versions.
b - They already can do that in beta testing, and have been for a long time. They would only have trouble with 2 different product lines.
c - Would mean more developers for ReactOS, not for Microsoft as they would still have to train them internally.

[Aeneas]

MS is not really just an OS vendor, actually, MS is selling a complete solution. You can have, from the office suite to the servers, everything from Microsoft. THAT is what makes MS products so valuable to companies. - That is why, even if ReactOS becomes successfully useable by average people one day, it will not be a real "threat" to MS. And that is a good thing, otherwise, all of MS's ways of "making money" that I could imagine would not be all too pleasant for ROS...

[patternjake]

Windows is far too mature for ReactOS to be any kind of a threat or intrest to Microsoft, no offense.

And with talks of Windows 8 and 128bit computing, I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I'd love to be proved wrong though.