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Microsoft WiX Code Released to SourceForge.Net
nberardi writes "On Monday, April 5, 2004, as part of the Shared Source Initiative, Microsoft released the source code for the Windows Installer XML (WiX) developer tool to SourceForge under the IBM Common Public License or CPL. The WiX project is the first Shared Source Initiative to go "public" on Source Forge rather than a Microsoft site. It is also the first to use an externally created Open Source license. Microsoft supports the idea that a software developer should be free to choose how they license their work and for the goals of WiX, the CPL was the right fit. Is this another ploy from Microsoft to not look like the bad guy, or do you think they are embracing on the Open Source movement?" Slashdot and SourceForge are both part of OSDN.
Oh, no! They're on to us! I confess. I work for Microsoft and this is all a ploy. The code is actually a very subtle virus that will send a message to us everytime someone installs a piece of open source software with this shared code. This will then open a back door and we will lauch DDOS attacks against SCO from this zombie box. It was supposed to make it look like Linux is insecure and everyone would buy our products. Too bad you figured us out.
"Da ist ein Technölüst in mein Unterpanten!"
Much more detailed information available at MSDN.
This is indeed interesting. The CPL seems to be a copyleft (!) license but subtly different from the GPL to make it incompatible so you cannot combine code from any of the GPLed projects with this to improve and share with your friends. Hmmmm...
The developer has more information as to what WiX is in his blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/robmen
Microsoft is not going away.
Open source is not going away.
Open source will never own the desktop (but continues to get better).
Microsoft will never own the server (but continues to get better).
Microsoft is learning from open source (openness leads to collective code quality).
Open source is learning from Microsoft (non-geek resources lead to ease-of-use in UI).
This is the way it has been and the way it will be. Customers of both camps will benefit. Zealots will be eternally unhappy waiting for the open-source rapture.
It is German for W*nk...
Timo's Audio Software http://www.esseraudio.com
I wasn't aware that KDE's Konq was out to make money. I also wasn't aware that KDE owned Linux and charged you for its use.
I also didn't realize that KDE forced the little guys out by unfair practices.
He's got a blog online, where he talks about the installer, release on Sf etc.
http://blogs.msdn.com/robmen/
There was something like that for KDE once, I think it was called Kconfigure. It would unpack tarballs and compile them. It rocked.
I'm amazing. You aren't. SUCK IT
Their source code is in the SourceForge CVS. SF is taking a beating right now, but the developer mentions that it's in there on this site.
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"
- Charles Darwin
Allegiance. It should have sold. Hopefully the community will do something nice with it.
If it's no big deal, then why is it nearly impossible for me to get a standard way for installing softwre on linux? I understand that most distros come with a packaging manager, but if I want to write a program, allow downloads from my site, then (to the best of my knowledge) there's no way for it to easily be installed and have menu shortcuts etc set up....
Follow this and your menu entries will show up for KDE and GNOME. Users of other DEs normally have enough nouse to add menu entries themselves (or their DEs can load GNOME/KDE menus).
As for installers, at wort you can just statically compile into an rpm - no dependency issues then. As long as you provide a source tar ball as well then most everyone will be happy (and if your program is any good, it'll get included in the package repositories of the various distributions).
If that doesn't appeal, you could always support autopackage.
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
Maybe you're looking for Autopackage.
Autopackage is a cross-distribution installation system for Linux, mostly designed for desktop apps. With Autopackage it's very easy to create packages that automatically integrate with GNOME and KDE and support non-root installs.
We're close to 1.0. We've recently changed our plans a little to reach 1.0 earlier so we can have more users ==> which means more developers.
Autopackage 1.0 will not be perfect, it will just be a "it works, and works well". The really cool features such as RPM/APT/YUM integration is scheduled for post-1.0.
Please lend your hand and support us. The more users/packagers we have, the better, because that means we'll probably also get more developers who can help us with the post-1.0 cool features and make Linux installation even better.
"The FSF lists the BSD license as being an "Open Source" license."
Actually it doesn't. It does list it as a Free Software licence though. Perhaps you're confusing Free Software with Open Source Software.
He's the one behind the SourceForge release. Here's the part on the idea behind, from his release comments
Now, let's talk about why WiX was released as Open Source. First, working on WiX has never been a part of my job description or review goals. I work on the project in my free time. Second, WiX is a very developer oriented project and thus providing source code access increases the pool of available developers. Today, there are five core developers (Robert, K, Reid, and Derek, thank you!) regularly working on WiX in their free time with another ten submitting fixes occasionally. Finally, many parts of the Open Source development process appeal to me. Back in 1999 and 2000, I did not feel that many people inside Microsoft understood what the Open Source community was really about and I wanted to improve that understanding by providing an example.
After four and a half years of part-time development, the WiX design (and most of the code) matured to a point where I was comfortable trying to release it externally. So, last October I started looking for a means to release not only the tools but the source code as well. I thought GotDotNet was the place. However, at that time, none of the existing Shared Source licenses were flexible enough to accept contributions from the community. Then, in February, I was introduced to Stephen Walli who was also working to improve Microsoft's relationship with the Open Source community. Fortunately, Stephen was much farther along than I and had the step-by-step plan how to release an Open Source project from Microsoft using an approved OSS license.
Today, via WiX on SourceForge, you get to see the results of many people's efforts to improve Microsoft from the inside out. I'm not exactly sure what is going to happen next but I'm sure there are quite a few people who are interested to see where this leads. Personally, all I hope is that if you find the WiX toolset useful then you'll join the community and help us improve the toolset.
Use Nullsofts NSIS instead. Has always been free and SMALL - its not the bloatware of the windows installer or installshield for that matter, which add a ton of crap your C drive which are not related to the actual program being installed.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Yeah; Microsoft released Windows source - to the Chinese government. And after the techies looked it over, the Chinese government decided to standardize on linux. There was a rumor that the techies recommended that MS Windows be banned in China, but this was too radical a step by China's current capitalist rulers. ;-)
...)
(Hey, maybe I can get a "troll" rating, too. And maybe this will be read in China, they'll put me on a "banned" list, and they'll stop sending me all that "big5" spam
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
http://mediagoblin.org/
Latest File Releases This Project Has Not Released Any Files
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
Not really on the code reviews. Rob and a few others of us spent some time in the last week doing a little bit of that, but it was basically the WiX volunteers taking care of their own code. It tends to be pretty clean, though. Hope you like it!
You just come along with me and have a good time. The Galaxy's a fun place. You'll need to have this fish in your ear.
Actually, read the news release that it's the first MS OSS project. There's a comment saying that they had to pull the compiled version because he forgot to upload the source to CVS.