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Microsoft Launches Free Web Software Eco-System
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft, inspired perhaps by the ease of selecting and installing iPhone apps, has taken a similar approach to gather back market share of its IIS web server in a predominantly Apache/PHP market. 10 open source CMS, gallery, wiki, and blog tools were chosen to populate the eco-system, dubbed Web App Gallery. Developers must agree to principles and can now submit their PHP or .NET application for inclusion. Once an application is in the gallery, Windows users use Microsoft Web Platform Installer, released in a keynote at MIX this week, which inspects the the local system, and installs and configures dependencies like the IIS webserver, PHP, URL re-writers, and file permissions. Screenshots show this to be quite easy for the typical computer user. This could provide some real competition for WAMP and Linux shell install processes."
Does it run Linux?
It's not every day you see "Microsoft" and "Free" in the same headline.
You think this is a sign Microsoft is legitimately trying to reach out to the web community? Or is this just another attempt to grab server market share from Apache and the Linux community?
Generally, I think the last thing the web needs is more servers running IIS.
google.slashdot
PHPNuke and other CMS'es or weblog thingies like Wordpress made it simple to create websites for the masses of people that just wanted something simple to host their website. Of course, they never kept up with any of the updates or didn't even give a hoot about security. Next thing you know you have a bunch of websites that are cracked and now serve ads and malware.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
... Windows-like synaptic for web apps.
Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
Spider invites flies into web. Film at 11.
[1] I think submitter mis-spelled "feeling threatened".
[2] Big deal. Two open source tools? How many closed-source tools are in the "ecosystem"?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Servers are maintained by people who are not computer newbies and need a GUI. Normally they know how to handle a shell.
Extremely ease install routines for server applications suggest that maintaining a server and keeping it secure is a trivial task, just like clicking those shiny "install" buttons. This is not the case, and you better know how to keep your server save if you run it on the web, especially if you make the somewhat disturbing choice to run it under Windows.
"It's a trap!"
And since it only runs on Windows, its just more reason send Microsoft some more money! Oh wait! I LOOKED at an ASP page earlier. I think I owe Ballmer another quarter....
The reason why Microsoft is giving support to open source applications is not because it wishes to support open source.
It is because it fears the open source operating system more than anything else. It imagines that if they welcome open source application developers onto the Microsoft platform they will be able to undermine support for the rival operating system (Linux).
If and when the rival operating system fades into disuse, those open source application developers will find that the Microsoft embrace can be every bit as fatal as a boa constrictor's
There was nothing hard about self-extracting exes and zip archives, why would users want anything different?
Yup. Cuz nobody's every thought about a package manager before. Especially not one with a nice, GUI front end.
Hey, maybe Microsoft will adopt something similar for the Xbox 360. You know, to make it easier to download add-ons, small games, videos, and so on. They could call it, I don't know, Xbox Live Marketplace or something. Too bad it's too late for them to have done it for the Xbox. Real shame that.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
try douching the sand out of it
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=asp+under+apache
http://weblogs.asp.net/israelio/archive/2005/09/11/424852.aspx
"How to make Apache run ASP.NET / ASP.NET 2.0
Don't ask me why... but i've been asked to make Apache run ASP.NET.
IT Worked !
Even worked with ASP.NET 2.0 Site !
Following are the instruction to make Asp.Net work under apache:"
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Will it blend?
Finally, I was getting sick and tired of being in control of my own development environment. Now I can hand over control to a company that regularly cannibalizes its own developer base for new ideas and code.
Steal from me, Microsoft!
Seriously, I do some web dev volunteer stuff. On OSX setting up AMP is so easy. The machine comes with apache and php to start with. Most apps (PHPAdmin/ joomla/ smarty) install easily.
My friend who helps out runs Ubuntu and its again a straight forward installs to get his LAMP going.
Disclaimer: I work for http://acquia.com/ , and we provide commercial support and network services for the open-source Drupal CMS. Over several weeks, we worked with Microsoft to make sure Drupal would be well represented in the Windows Application Gallery to provide IIS users access to an easy to use Drupal installation. The result is here http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/AcquiaDrupal.aspx We already provide Drupal Windows and Mac stack installers for Apache at http://acquia.com/downloads and so this was a natural extension of our mission to increase Drupal usage. Overall it was a positive experience and a way for us to ensure that the Drupal market continues to grow by supporting end-users who are committed to Microsoft's IIS and can't or prefer not use Apache. Microsoft of course also is motivated to ensure IIS is a great platform for any application, so we see this as a win-win. If you'd like to learn more, our CTO Dries Buytaert wrote about it when the Windows Application Gallery launched at http://buytaert.net/microsoft-promoting-drupal
If it is an entire Eco-System it must include the viruses too I assume?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
and the world follows what RMS warns against, makes money and moves on. Meanwhile RMS keeps adding clauses to the GPL and hair to his beard :-)
OK ... I've only read up on it a little so far, but I have to ask:
Most of those apps use mysql on the backend (at least WP and Drupal do ... and those are two of the main apps touted). BUT! The platform only mentions SQL Server as far as I've read so far. Is MySQL quietly installed or is this some port of those apps that uses SQL Server? Some DB Abstraction Layer (find that hard to believe)?
Mod me down for not reading enough or being lazy if you want, but I an still trying to figure out how they include some of these apps without including MySQL
Anyone actually played with it yet?
Que Deus te de em dobro o que me desejas
[May God give you double that which you wish for me]
sudo apt-get install wordpress
Oooooh yeah, that *was* difficult!
Also, this isn't Microsoft copying Apple as much as it's copying Fantastico. Fantastico (when combined with cPanel) has had the "point and click to install your web app" thing down for year. Proprietary, yes. Buggy, yes. But it works and is a standard feature on any decent commercial Linux webhosting account.
I wish Microsoft well in their endeavor.
I love life, live life to love.
Some DB Abstraction Layer (find that hard to believe)?
Actually, db abstraction layers (aka orm) can be, and often are, implemented. This is generally easier done if your app doesn't do anything special in terms of sql. If you use the common dto/dao/bo methodology for your business stack, the DAO's are essentially the abstraction layer for the db interface. To implement the actual db abstraction you can simply isolate all your db queries into text files for each db vendor. Then you can either configure the application at install time, or test the db at run time to figure out which vendor specific db queries to use.
Trying to attribute 'human' values, even malice, to a company is like dressing your poodle. 'Microsoft' has no intent, only individuals have intent. What they do have is a large, constantly changing body of managers along with a history of cut-throat business policies and more often then not, sub-par products.
What do you think they'll do?
Quack, quack.
the Geocities of our day.
Has it ever struck anyone else that aside from a mediocre Update center Microsofts software delivery mechanism is archaic, almost fundamentally useless? If this level of innovation wasn't systemic throughout our industry (and many others) they would have been laughed out of business a long time ago.
Quack, quack.
There are already open source projects for this kind of functionality.
PackageKit already have a basic start for something like this.
The web frontend for PackageKit can be further developed. The web software developers should be encouraged to develop simple web based configuration for their applications.
Easy to configure web based applications with PackageKit based package management have a lot of positive aspects.
PackageKit - Main Page
PackageKit - Screenshots
Installing public web pages from tarballs has always been a major potential security problem. It makes total sense to use the distros packages and security maintenance for web applications.
Yeah? So what? In Linux or BSD, do you get the nice user experience with a pretty icon to click to install the product? No? I didn't think so!
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
I suspect MS will do something dastardly, like customizing the various CMS systems they use to use MS SQL when they did not do so previously, with different table and row names within the database, providing no ways for your an average user to export the data into any other format than MS SQL.
Sure, it's workable, but for someone who doesn't know how to install things manually - never mind what was installed in the first place? Good luck. He's locked in and stuck using IIS on Windows, now.
Ironic: free software will be providing MS with another avenue for vendor lock in.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
A good friend of mine Akira Ohgaki has been offering Web-based Package Installer for Ubuntu for quite sometime now.
Credible
Holy sh*t! Microsoft finally figured out how to clone apt. Now you can apt-get to install and configure new 'packages' for Microsoft server.
Way to innovate!
Doing someone a favour and trying to make more money aren't mutually exclusive; in fact, it can be clever business practice. By doing so, you can improve the perception of your company, the better perception results in people being more likely to buy products and services from you, and you've done it all without doing something unethical or illegal.
Frankly, I'd much rather Microsoft did stuff like the above, making their products easier to use, especially with 3rd-party products, than just being plain arrogant and anti-competitive. Or would you prefer the latter?
Resulting in traditional "unspecified error" and nothing meaningful in logs so I've done it eventually the good ol' way. True Microsoft Wayâ.
SilverStripe, one of the PHP/MySQL applications included in Microsoft's Web Application gallery, gets 40% of its installs on Windows currently. So, to streamline those installs makes a good set of sense, especially as a high number of those would be purely for evaluation purposes, where the focus is to get a copy quickly running with all the correct dependencies sorted. http://silverstripe.org/silverstripe-installation-trends-march2009/
Having bitnami around, nobody needs ISS-tied Microsoft crapware AT ALL anymore. Ever.
http://bitnami.org/
And even so, apt-get is waaay easier than using one of these windowsesque install wizards if you are able to take the time to learn a couple of simple commands (or use your favorite synaptic/kpackage/adept package manager)
If you absolutely need to run wordpress on top of a windows, DONT!, take VirtualBox and load a proper Gnu/Linux system on top your computer, if not even that will do, os XAMPP is the way to go for you.
What Microsoft wants is to benefit from the popularity of the LAMP stack and substitute the "L" of Linux for Windows and the "A" of Apache and the "P" of PHP for IIS and ASP.Net (whenever they can) and make you pay for running free(dom) software on top their expensive, inferior and unreliable products instead by using a lame ripoff of the bitnami installers deprived from apache and with every-day-less-popular IIS inserted, and once you become tied to windowze and IIS it's not free anymore. And then they even dare to say "hey, we are "open" and "part of the community now, so give us your money", arent we? not? then we will sue you for infringing our precious software patents!!!!"
I understand exactly what is the target audience for this. Let me give you a concrete example that happened to me recently. I am now working in China, and most Chinese IT guys I know here are MS-only guys who think the whole world revolves around MS products and nothing else exists, sadly it is a reality here (go try to find a Linux netbook in Shanghai - good luck). However, lately a sister school asked me to help their IT guys to install Moodle on their school's server (we run it on a Debian system), but THEY run everything on Microsoft/IIS and they have no intent whatsoever of trying anything Linux/Open Source. Therefore I found out (and the Chinese IT guys too) how inconvenient it is to install PHP stuff onto a Windows/IIS system. I showed these guys how easy it would've been to do the same installation under Linux through packages (sudo apt-get install moodle) and I think they were impressed but still are not interested in "learning" anything about Linux. Therefore I think they are EXACTLY the audience that MS are trying to reach at the moment. Solutions like Moodle are becoming more and more popular into the education sector and same goes for many CMS/PHP portals elsewhere, and many MS systems admins are now ASKED to install these programs but they have no idea how and have NEVER touched Linux... This would be exactly what they need, in order to please their boss with minimal effort.
Of course this is simply to facilitate lazy MS admin people to keep on using their Windows server instead of getting them attracted to a move over to Linux... Again MS is doing it to fight against the competition, nothing else.
"Be Compatible: The application to which you provide a link must run on Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP & Windows Vista using best practices on running ASP.NET applications and PHP applications on IIS."
Heh heh heh heh, heh heh heh heh.
Well, whatever. It's all Microsoft Windows to me.
Matt Asay works for an "open source" company that talks a lot about F/OSS, but in the end is just as proprietary as MS. Ask him why companies that buy support contracts for Alfresco are *FORBIDDEN* from contributing to the "open source" version.
He slams other companies that aren't "open source" all the time, which makes him a hypocrite, to boot.
Windows will be a thing of the past, come April 1...
They run faster and you shouldn't run services on a desktop machine anyways if you worry about slowness. Put linux on an old computer, setup the LAMP, and there you go. Samba will allow you to access the files directly and you can even use the old computer as a dedicated server. No need to purchase Windows 2k3 or 2k8.
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss
I suggest they call it Echo-System.
Think global, act loco
if apache runs under linux- then running asp under apache under linux does not qualify to dispute?
am I misinterpreting your rebuttal?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random