Open Source at Microsoft

OSCON and Everything After

Port 25 — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:19:40 GMT

When I describe my job as “helping Microsoft and open source to grow together,” I get a broad range of reactions from people outside and inside of Microsoft. These reactions have included sentiments along the lines of “that must be tough,” or “you must

re: Open Source at Microsoft

ChrisBradley — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:00:20 GMT

I think this is a great move in the right direction for Microsoft. I have always been a great supporter of Open Source Software. As one of the few purchasers of Vista in this category, I have to say I am still impressed with the software. And also, especially with the move to integrate Windows Media Player with Firefox. Good Work Guys. Now we have to get you on top of Wikis...

re: Open Source at Microsoft

einhverfr — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:49:04 GMT

When I worked at Microsoft, I floated an idea which seemed to get no traction despite the fact that it was obviously considered independantly at the top level of the organization. I still think that long-run the only way out of the issues or market saturation is through open source. Here are my proposed steps for getting Microsoft there: 1) THe management needs to make a commitment *now* to begin steering core application into a direction where they can, if Microsoft decides to do so, be released open source. This means that the legal review procedures need to be put in place now, and that areas of the code which are rewritten need to be done in ways which are compatible with a possible open source release at some point in the indefinite future. (the products may never be open sourced but the option should be there). 2) Microsoft needs to expand Microsoft Consulting Services and use it as a venue for bringing Microsoft partners into jobs they might not get otherwise. This has been the secret to IBM's success in this area. A few larger businesses may find this threatening (Accenture, for example), but most of the Microsoft partners are likely to welcome the opportunities that come with this. The service market is *huge* and Microsoft can position themselves as a high-end project management and techncial consulting solution which can bring in the extensive network of partners. BTW, I know you already do the latter (becuase I have received offers to take part in such projects) to some extent but are not very vocal about it. The secret to success here is to communicate to the partners that this is not competition as much as cooperation in helping to bring greater opportunities to everyone. At some point, decisions can be rationally made about whether open source makes good sense for Microsoft, but it does not make sense to make a sudden about-course without a lot of preparation.

Microsoft & Open Source

Adam Wiener's Thoughts and Comments — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 19:05:21 GMT

Following on from some of my recent posts on interoperability with open source and choice + community

re: Open Source at Microsoft

CajunTechie — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 07:55:31 GMT

I have to admit that, when I first heard talk of OSS at Microsoft, I was very skeptical to say the least. But I'm just as encouraged and excited to see all of the cool stuff the company is doing on the OSS front and it's nice to see they are starting to see OSS as an allies instead of an enemy. Good on you MS! We're glad you here!

Microsoft to Submit License to OSI

Open Sources — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:06:14 GMT

In Bill Hilf's keynote at Oscon today, he announced that Microsoft will submit it's shared source licenses to the OSI for approval. This includes the Microsoft Permissive License, Community License and Reference License. Although a bit late to the party,

re: Open Source at Microsoft

jbrinkman — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 21:57:57 GMT

Bill,

Please don't forget about those in the OSS community who have been on the Microsoft and .Net platforms all along. Much of the OSS discussion on Port 25 seems to speak to the non-Microsoft centric projects. There are thousands of existing projects running on the MS technology stack that could also benefit from a closer relationship with Microsoft.