Microsoft Starts Its Own Open Source Party, Will Others Attend?

Those who follow Microsoft with any regularity know that the company has been doing much to rehabilitate its ‘good guy’ image, since the problems with the semi-non-proprietary Open XML format wars of a while back. It was something that put the company in a really bad light, looking like the spoiled child that wanted everyone to play with his toys, but only as he approved.

It was not a good scene, and many feel the sting of the war to this day, still suspecting the authenticity of Microsoft’s intent to be a good open source citizen.

The licensing models that the company came up with, too restrictive for many, have also become a sticking point for many software authors. Microsoft, not having any of this lost on it, has decided to make its own open source foundation, which is bewildering to many.

from slashdot

“Microsoft already had its own open source (OSI-approved) licenses, its own open source project hosting site and now it’s adding its own non-profit open source foundation. That’s right, the company that is still banging the patent drum against open source now has its own 501(c)(6) open source foundation. Officially called the CodePlex Foundation, it’s a separate effort from the CodePlex site and is aimed at helping to get more commercial developers involved in open source. Considering how they continue to attack Linux and open source, will anyone take them seriously?”

When you are as large as Microsoft, you can host your own party, and have enough attendees to make the whole thing worthwhile. If nothing else, it may be a way for the frustrated programmers there to let their pet projects see the light of day. Or, perhaps the (collective) heart is in the right place, and we might see some changes for the better. It certainly does make food for thought.

I know I’d like to see some real add-ons for Windows 7, similar to the Windows XP Powertoys, which were never replicated for Vista. Certainly others can make additional software to extend the functionality of Windows, but who better to do it than the ones who were in on Windows 7 from the start, and know the ’secret handshake’ [that is, any hooks that would make adding in extra functionality easy and slick]. They could start with a non-kludged way to return the drill-down hierarchical menu system.

It is very odd, as the blurb above states, that while making nice with the open source community on one hand, the company heads continue to bad mouth Linux, and pursue a campaign to remove any thoughts of it from prospective customer’s thoughts. I’d say that Microsoft is not nearly as monolithic as Mr. Ballmer would like to see…but that’s just my opinion.

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