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MS Releases .NET Source, Sort Of

Posted by timothy on from the tgz-file dept.

cam_macleod writes "A friend at Microsoft (he's a nice guy, really!) pointed me to their release of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) source, which builds successfully on Windows, FreeBSD, and MacOS X 10.2 -- he says Linux too, but their website strangely doesn't mention it!"

3 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Evil licensing.. by Ogerman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Read the license here

    This is nowhere near Open Source / Free software. The license specifically states that you cannot use the code for any commercial purpose whatsoever--even writing your own software to use for your own purposes in running a business. Furthermore, the license states:

    You may use any information in intangible form that you remember after accessing the Software. However, this right does not grant you a license to any of Microsoft's copyrights or patents for anything you might create using such information.

    In other words, they're trying to use software patents to keep people from writing their own implementations of C# / CLI libraries and software.

    Which all boils down to: Microsoft wants a programming language for which you have to pay them royalties just to use, with the exception of academic use. They realize that their monopoly on operating environments is crumbling so they want to "own" and control the "next C++ or Java". My opinion: boycott this crap.

  2. Certainly a very reasonable license, although... by linuxghoul · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The license seems refreshingly simple and short, esp. for microsoft. They do seem serious abt trying to make CLI a common standard...

    the only "funny" part of the license is "you may not distribute modifications of the Software under terms that purport to require the Software or derivative works to be sublicensed to others", a very straight, and extremely amusing ("purport"??) attack on the GPL. M$ maynot be a lot of good things, but they certainly ARE FOCUSSED! ;)

    also, can someone please explain to me the impliations of

    1. "You may use any information in intangible form that you remember after accessing the Software. However, this right does not grant you a license to any of Microsoft's copyrights or patents for anything you might create using such information".: does it mean i can use techniques learnt from this code in my own code, as long as i dont copy the code verbatim (i understand abaout patent violation, am confused abt the copyright part)
    2. "That if you sue anyone over patents that you think may apply to the Software or anyone's use of the Software, your license to the Software ends automatically.": What does this really mean? what are the practical implications? why do they need to have it in there?

    Can someone please enlighten me?

    LinuxGhoul

    --
    Sigura Non Grata
  3. Re:I feel dirty. by km790816 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Of course we all know that Microsoft did little or no optimization for the "shared-source" CLI.

    It's pretty clear that this work is purely acedemic. Having a base infrastructure that can be compiled and run on many platforms is a great way for people in Research to play with, cretique, extend, and break the CLI.

    It also gives them something to play with besides that silly Java stuff. :-)

    --
    A speech...