Renowned iPhone iOS hacker Geohot has turned his attention to Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7, and rather than theatening him, Microsoft’s encouraging the lad.
Hackers are usually seen as the sourge of software platforms, the gateway to hordes of pirates, but Microsoft is encouraging hacker Geohot’s attempt to crack the Windows Phone 7 system. After hearing about Geohot’s interest in the platform, Microsoft’s Brandon Watson tweeted the following l33t endorsement of these saucy goings-on —
“#geohot if you want to build cool stuff on #wp7, send me email and the team will give you a phone – let dev creativity flourish #wp7dev”
But is this a passive-aggressive challenge, is Microsoft trying to play the cool uncle or is it genuinely interested in all sorts of developmental dynanism, even if it could hurt Windows Phone 7 in the long run?
Your guess is as good as ours, but it’s been a long time since Microsoft was a software maverick. It’s not the first time that Microsoft has given Windows Phone 7 hackers a warm embrace though — Watson met with the first jailbreakers, theChevronWP7 team and awarded them with a T-shirt rather than a law suit. Perhaps Microsoft’s just taking a round-about approach to dev team recruitment…
