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WiX Project Lead Interviewed On CPL Licensing
comforteagle writes "After Microsoft released WiX (Windows Installer XML) under the CPL I found it odd that so many interviews following were with almost everyone but the project lead. So, for your Friday enjoyment I've posted an interview with Rob Mensching, Wix Project lead, who sheds a little light on what's going on behind the scenes at the Shared Source Initiative from the ground." Mensching explains: "My bosses were not involved in the decision which license should be used for the Windows Installer XML toolset. I worked with members of the Shared Source Initiative team who understand the details of the various licenses available to share source code. They listened to my requirements and found that the CPL seemed most appropriate for the toolset."
Has Microsoft ever done ANYTHING that /. has approved of?
/. would find some nefarious plot behind that too.
I sure if MS released the source code to Windows 2003 under the GPL tomorrow
-Cecil
For anyone wondering, this is basically an XML wrapper for the MSI.
MSI files are binary databases that you had to edit with a nasty tool called oracle. The whole thing was counter intuitive. I could never understand why the MSI wasn't XML based from the start. It was written when MS was XML mad, after all.
This is brilliant. You can now work with a text source file format for the MSI.
"wichsen" (sounds like vixen) means to polish, but is usually assotiated with polishing a certain body part. Wichs (or Wix) would be the noun.
***Quis custodiet ipsos custodes***
"Wichsen" is manual stimulation of the male genitals, usually masturbation. If someone introduced you as the "Leiter des WiX projekts", that would mean you are the leader of the masturbation project.
This is being handled by M$ in a most interesting way; most likely all be design. This is not (IMHO) a project that escaped from Redmond, they have a plan in mind. The question is - is this a "hip fake" to the OSS community to fool everyone while they finalize their master plan of world domination of all computers everywhere, or is it an example of M$ recognizing the value of OSS and using it when it makes sense?
You don't want to name your project "WiX" in Germany
:)
No, but boy will this be fun (see other posts for translations)
Now, your installation can be "hingewixt" quickly on your "wixed" system. Many people already suspected that everything from MS is "abgewixt". But, best of all, as it is free (as in speech), anybody can "wixen", and everyone can share the "wixe" and knowledge about "wixen".
Thank you, Microsoft, for making tech-talk on public transit so much more... interesting.
My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
The same applies to Google's Orkut service. Orkut is the Finnish for "orgasms".
hapo
Well, it's a social networking service, isn't it?
I know most /.'s will find this hard to believe but M$ has always provided a huge amount of source code in an open source fashion. Just visit MSDN and you'll see of examples of free sample code. Then go to the code center where you can find tons of free demonstration applications that you can use to build your own app. For example the company I work for has used User Interface Process Application Block for .NET and Exception Management Application Block for .NET from their patterns and practices site to form the basis of an Enterprise scale business application. Of course the code is generally sample applications for Business purposes. But code like this has been available from M$ since before the internet boom.