Microsoft Makes Second GPLv2 Release

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Microsoft Makes Second GPLv2 Release

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday July 22, 2009 @02:10AM from the baby-steps dept.

angry tapir writes "Microsoft has made its second release under the General Public License in two days with software for Moodle, an 'open-source course management system that teachers use to create online learning Web sites for their classes[, which] has about 30 million users in 207 countries.' It comes on the heels of Redmond contributing drivers to the Linux community. No reports as yet on dropping temperatures in hell."

23 of 218 comments (clear)

Inspect thoroughly by Andrew+Cooper · 2009-07-22 02:14 · Score: 5, Funny

Someone should really check out the source, just to be sure it doesn't contain hidden subliminal "You Love Microsoft" messages. A good way to brainwash people is to interfere with their education...
1. Re:Inspect thoroughly by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2009-07-22 02:21 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Not really necessary. Microsoft's contribution is explicitly designed for "Live Services integration" for signing in to moodle instances using Windows Live IDs(from MS, naturally) and using the various Windows Live web services(bing and friends).
  
  Nothing subtle about it.
So that's their plan.... by Jedi+Alec · 2009-07-22 02:14 · Score: 5, Funny

1) Release code under GPL
2) Pigs fly and spread pig flue
3) ?????
4) Plague!
5) Robo-ballmer rules the world

--

People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
1. Re:So that's their plan.... by catxk · 2009-07-22 02:42 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Haha, get real.
  
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  Don't be crazy anymore!
2. Re:So that's their plan.... by AdmiralXyz · 2009-07-22 02:43 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I don't like your sig. Please change it.
  
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  Dislike the Electoral College? Lobby your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
3. Re:So that's their plan.... by Freetardo+Jones · 2009-07-22 03:33 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Sue for what? They can't sue you for anything if they themselves release it under a license that says you can freely use, modify and distribute the source code. This imagined case would be thrown out of court.
Not contribution; use by CarpetShark · 2009-07-22 02:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

This is an moodle plugin for microsoft's own groupware. Like their previous driver offering, it's not a wholehearted contribution to making an open source project better, but instead just a thing to make microsoft's own services work better when people need to use open source.
It's good to see a willingness to do even this much, but hardly a staggering change of heart. They've a long way to go yet.
1. Re:Not contribution; use by dword · 2009-07-22 02:34 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  This is the change some of us wanted and I believe it to be a very good one! Why would anyone have the right to force Microsoft to contribute to open-source? What we really needed was compatibility. Nobody cares about the way Microsoft manages its code and nobody should have the right to bother them about it.
2. Re:Not contribution; use by intx13 · 2009-07-22 02:42 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Like their previous driver offering, it's not a wholehearted contribution to making an open source project better, but instead just a thing to make microsoft's own services work better when people need to use open source.
  Microsoft is a corporation, after all, and I would be very surprised to see them expending resources working on open source projects that they do not actually use. This could be a gateway, a toe in the water, to starting open source projects, which then of course they would contribute to. But unlike IBM, (former) Sun, etc, Microsoft has no ties to existing open source software, so not contributing to the same isn't too surprising.
  
  It's good to see a willingness to do even this much, but hardly a staggering change of heart. They've a long way to go yet.
  I suppose you could say that. I think the point here is not that Microsoft is releasing something under an open source license, but that Microsoft sees open source as a viable approach to softare development and a real business force. Typically we expect the company to brush off open source as "anti-American" and offer pricey, Windows-only alternatives to whatever the demand might be. But now they are admitting, in a business sense, that the open source market exists and is worth working with. Sure, they're doing this to increase interoperability with their existing, closed-source projects... but that's more than just a token move.
3. Re:Not contribution; use by Freetardo+Jones · 2009-07-22 02:43 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  If it was a big change, they'd go GPLv3.
  Why? That would make it be under an incompatible license with what the original software is written under and as such no third party would be able to distribute it legally because of this incompatibility. Or did you not even bother to take the 2 seconds to realize this fundamental problem with your argument?
4. Re:Not contribution; use by Richard_at_work · 2009-07-22 02:49 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Why the hell should they contribute to any project in a way that doesnt firmly, 100% front and center benefit themselves? There is no requirement for contributions to be altruistic in any way, shape or form.
5. Re:Not contribution; use by Chyeld · 2009-07-22 03:11 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Microsoft is a victim of their reputation, a reputation honestly earned by their past actions. When everyone who ever gets in bed with you turns up dead or with a story of barely escaping alive the next day, sometimes it's appropriate for others to label you a black widow and liken you to a praying mantis.
  No one claims that anyone in the group you listed are contributing to open source purely because they are altruistic and without any self interest. But that's the point, everyone on your list 'plays nice' with open source because they have an interest in seeing it succeed. Microsoft, however, has never acted as if open source was anything but a despicable wretch deserving a slow painful death. Their own self interest, therefore, leads people to suspect that perhaps the apples they are offering are poisoned.
  It's also important to note that in both of the cases where they've done this, the contribution wasn't a general "here's some improvements" code, it was "here is some code which would allow you to work better with our proprietary services, so more people would be willing to use those." Anyone who thinks that Microsoft would continue to maintain such interoperability code should it prove a disadvantage to MS should avoid real estate brokers with deals concerning bridges.
6. Re:Not contribution; use by immakiku · 2009-07-22 03:22 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  This is not about a willingness to do anything. Microsoft's goal, like that of all corporations is to make profit for its shareholders. It's not about good or bad intentions, so please stop trying to interpret it in that context. The general public should be pretty pissed if corporations like Microsoft decided to have a "change of heart" and focused on making things open instead of making money, because each member of the general public could very well be partial owners of those corporations.
  The thing we actually should want to see is a situation where it makes more sense for Microsoft to promote open source. An example of such a situation is if the rate and state of development for Linux demonstrate how well open source models can work. It would be unreasonable and unrealistic to expect to see Microsoft promote open source out of a sense of nobility.
7. Re:Not contribution; use by uhoreg · 2009-07-22 04:31 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Actually, the original software (Moodle) is moving to GPLv3, while Microsoft has released their plugin under GPLv2 only which makes it impossible for anyone to legally distribute Moodle with Microsoft's plugin. Not only that, but Moodle had previously be licensed under GPLv2 or later, so using a GPLv3 plugin was always fine. So it would have been better if Microsoft had used GPLv3 instead.
  
  --
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uh, the driver release is an ANTI-Linux move by toby · 2009-07-22 02:18 · Score: 4, Interesting

Not everyone was fooled. Apenwarr wrote about it, for one.
This is still Microsoft, folks. It's always a trap.

--
you had me at #!
1. Re:uh, the driver release is an ANTI-Linux move by Anarchduke · 2009-07-22 02:53 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Of course they get it. They get that with virtualization you don't need to update the drivers for windows xp, you could run it forever on a linux box, and only worry about updating the drivers in linux to match your hardware. thus people could have the latest hardware and run xp virtualized.
  
  of course, the host operating system has to stay current, and with Micro$oft already pressuring vendors to stop making XP drivers, its the host operating system that becomes important.
  
  Read toby's comment and follow the link:
  
  Not everyone was fooled. Apenwarrwrote about it, for one.
  
  This is still Microsoft, folks. It's always a trap.
  
  --------------
  Yeah, so don't buy anything off the the icecream truck that Microsoft is driving past us. Every treat has a razor blade and every snack is poisoned.
  
  Woe, I sound really bitter, and I consider myself fairly apathetic where Windows is concerned.
  
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  who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
No reports as yet on dropping temperatures in hell by ChoboMog · 2009-07-22 02:19 · Score: 4, Informative

I don't know... It looks like its going to drop a few degrees overnight. http://www.weathercity.com/us/mi/hell/
Re:Bravo by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2009-07-22 02:24 · Score: 4, Informative

Moodle is a preexisting OSS project, this is just a plugin for making Windows Live web services work with it. This does suggest that MS doesn't think that they can kill moodle; but it isn't their offering.
We were thinking of using Moodle by Canazza · 2009-07-22 02:29 · Score: 4, Insightful

AS far as I'm aware, the only thing they have for Moodle is a Windows Live Plugin, that lets you do Windows Live Searches and have some sort of MSN Messnger functionality.
This isn't Microsoft caring about GPL or whatever, it's about a small project that gives them more hooks into more websites. It gives people learning to use the web in a formal environment MORE Microsoft.

--
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
Re:v2? why not v3? by Freetardo+Jones · 2009-07-22 02:41 · Score: 4, Insightful

Hmm, this is interesting. The more cynical part of me wonders why, and can't help but recall the protections against patent litigation built into GPLv3, and notably missing from GPLv2...
What's interesting about it? The Linux kernel is GPLv2 so a GPLv3 driver is unlikely to make it in. Moodle is also GPLv2 so it's perfectly logical that they'd release their plugin that works with it under the same license. Did you forget that whole big thing about GPLv3 being incompatible with GPLv2? In fact, it would be stupid on their part to release source code to work with programs under incompatible license terms which would disallow anyone from legitimately being able to distribute it.
Re:But... by lordandmaker · 2009-07-22 02:44 · Score: 3, Insightful

I know it's hard for the FOSS zealots and Microsoft haters but really, it is possible that Microsoft might be changing, personally I think it's been happening for a few years. The company culture seems much less predatory and hostile nowadays for the most part - there are still some shitty things and people for sure but it takes a long time to change a company of that size.

And, if they are changing, it takes a long time to reverse a reputation as bad as the one they have.

They should be commended for trying, rather than insulting for simply existing. Encourage companies when they do what's good rather than hate them no matter what and they might be encouraged to follow the good path rather than simply change their mind for getting flack no matter what they do.

MS have a long and distinguished history of fucking people over. It will take a long time of them specifically not fucking people over for people to stop expecting anything MS announce to have ulterior motives. In much the same way as those people suspicious of MS cannot expect a turnaround in the attitude of the company overnight, you cannot realistically expect an overnight turnaround in the way Microsoft is perceived. I'm no MS hater. I know they've done a pretty big bunch of good things, and, as a Linux user I'm relishing (and, admittedly slightly worried by) the substantial increase in quality from them recently. IE and Office are two bits of MS software that have come on leaps and bounds in the past few years. But I still viewed everything they release with some suspicion because for so many years that has been the most appropriate thing to do. And for several years into the future, the MS I know is going to be the one that one should be suspicious of. Maybe they are changing, but they'll have to change dramatically and far to realistically win people over into thinking they're working for the good of anyone but themselves.
Microsoft altruistic? No... by Anonymous Coward · 2009-07-22 03:25 · Score: 4, Funny

There have been times in my life when I would not have thought that someone who calls himself "fuzzy fuzzy fungus" could educate me.

But you did it this time.
Re:Bravo by bloodninja · 2009-07-22 03:42 · Score: 4, Insightful

Moodle is a preexisting OSS project, this is just a plugin for making Windows Live web services work with it. This does suggest that MS doesn't think that they can kill moodle; but it isn't their offering.
Actually, it might lead to courses that use Moodle (my university does) to require Windows Live Messenger for each student. That means that Linux users, who otherwise could use the Moodle coursework, will now not be able to interoperate fully with the rest of their coursemates. This seems to me to be adding an option for a _dependency_ on Windows to Moodle. I am afraid that many courses will exercise that option.

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