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Microsoft Plans "Shared Source" .NET

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-thatss-pretty-interesting dept.

raelity writes "Microsoft has announced its first foray into the waters of publicly shared source. In an O'Reilly Network interview, Tim O'Reilly talks to Microsoft program manager (and FreeBSD sympathizer) Dave Stutz about Redmond's plans to release shared-source code of parts of the .NET framework. The offerings include: a C# compiler, C# based ECMAscript compiler, and shared-source CLI for Windows and FreeBSD. The announcement comes against a backdrop of Microsoft's recent attack on some aspects of open source software development, particularly against the GNU Public License (GPL)." I think Jamie put it best when he said recently 'open source: "share and enjoy"; shared source: "look but don't touch"'. This is most certainly an interesting development- so far the Open Source/Free Software division has been the main one, but not we have a third branch. Imagine what would happen if MS adopted a fair license? Compatibility and competition. We would all benefit.

3 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. Exploiting *BSD's dislike for the GPL by DG · · Score: 5

    Ohhh, those clever Microsoftians....

    They've picked up on the scism between the *BSDs and Linux over the GPL, and they're playing one off against the other. "It's not Open Source we don't like, it's the GPL!" - presto! They get instant allies from the *BSD folks.

    Evil evil evil. But clever.

    How long before we are faced with a version of "Microsoft BSD"? - enhanced and extended of course. After all, to run Office For BSD, you'll need *this* little kernel patch, and IIS For BSD will need *this* little tweak to the network stack, and oh, init now requires an instance of Actice Directory somewhere before it'll boot and...

    Well, you get the picture.

    But for the GPL, there goes Linux!

    *BSD folks, be careful. It looks like Microsoft has determined their Open Source strategy - and it's YOU! "Embrace, extend, extinguish"; welcome to Phase One.

    DG

    --
    Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
    1. Re:Exploiting *BSD's dislike for the GPL by DGolden · · Score: 5

      The other thing is, they'll probably also try to to claim that some of their "shared source" code has ended up in some open source project, and tie said project up in legal knots for as long as they can - having "shared source" is probably even worse for true open source than fully proprietary, because MS will always be trying to accuse Open Source developers of nicking their code. The developers of Wine, for example, are particularly wary of such things.

      --
      Choice of masters is not freedom.
  2. Third branch??? by Cardinal+Biggles · · Score: 5
    This is most certainly an interesting development- so far the Open Source/Free Software division has been the main one, but not we have a third branch.

    Oh, come on. Open Source and Free Software are almost completely the same thing. Which name you use is nothing but an indication of the reason why you think the freedom to use/modify/redistribute is important.

    "Shared source", however, is a completely different thing. It gives you none of the freedoms both Open Source and Free Software give you.

    Calling it a "third branch" is exactly the kind of misrepresentation you'd expect from the Microsoft FUDmeisters, but not from a Slashdot editor.