Sam Ramji is leaving Microsoft

billhilf — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:47:00 GMT

It's been a while since I made an appearance on Port25. I felt it was important to provide some thoughts to the Port25 community on Sam Ramji's impending departure from Microsoft.

After many years helping to carry the open source software banner for the company, Sam is leaving Microsoft at the end of this month. You may have also heard that he has accepted the position of interim President of the CodePlex Foundation as well as a leadership position at a startup in California. (I'll let Sam and his new company share more details there.)

Sam joined my team three years ago to drive open source technical strategy. I have eagerly supported him as he passionately articulated a vision that Microsoft could coexist - and even thrive - in a heterogeneous IT world.

The perspectives on OSS at Microsoft have evolved to the point where Microsoft's open source strategy is no longer just locked in a single ‘lab' on campus - now OSS is an important part of many product groups and strategies across the company. We have become increasingly clear on where we work with open source - development methodologies, projects, partners, products and communities - and where our products compete with commercial open source companies or platforms. Today, there are engineering and business leaders across the company, myself included, looking at how to drive interoperability for customers and as a lever for new growth.

And, because we recognize the importance of having that strong internal advocate for open source, we are actively seeking someone to fill Sam's shoes at Microsoft.

We will not waver in our commitment to open source.

To my friend Sam: Best of luck to you and your family as you move on to your next great adventure, and THANK YOU for all of your efforts and passion.

Business as Usual

billhilf — Fri, 18 May 2007 23:22:00 GMT

It’s been an interesting week, with people offering a range of opinions about what they think is happening in Redmond. Despite a lot of pontification, our strategy regarding intellectual property and open source has not changed – and it is not frivolous litigation or fear.

IDG did an article – it’s a far more accurate reflection of Microsoft’s IP strategy than the Fortune article from earlier this week. Andy Updegrove also has a thoughtful article on his site, and Gartner’s lead open source analysts have been clear to customers: “don’t panic.”

Our strategy remains the same:

Our IP bridge makes lawsuits unnecessary.
We will continue to offer this licensing bridge to commercial software distribution companies.
This IP bridge enables Open Source developers to develop software free from concerns about patents.
We will continue to grow Open Source applications and technologies on the Microsoft platform.

Microsoft was created by developers, for developers and is only successful through developers and customers. Developers who write Open Source software are participating in a worldwide community of practice and a spirit of collaboration. These are noble characteristics and Microsoft both applauds and supports this work.

We continue to champion projects like JBoss, Zend (PHP), and SugarCRM, as well as Firefox, openwsman, Bandit and thousands of others. We are building relationships and a track record here and we ask that you judge us on these actions. We will work with commercial and non-commercial developers to increase the availability and quality of open source on Windows and interoperability with Windows.

Our IP strategy has not changed. Where we have unique and valuable intellectual property (as indicated by our high scores on the science strength of our patents) we will seek to license it to commercial entities (such as Samsung and Fuji Xerox).

It’s not us versus the free world. It’s about commercial companies working together around IP issues – it’s business as usual.

- Bill Hilf and Sam Ramji

Port 25: The Open Source Community at Microsoft : Bill Hilf, Sam Ramji

Sam Ramji is leaving Microsoft

Business as Usual