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Microsoft Buys Teamprise, Will Ship Linux Tools

Posted by timothy on from the things-get-complicated dept.

spongman writes "Microsoft's Senior Vice President, Developer Division, S. Somasegar has announced that Microsoft has acquired Teamprise from Sourcegear, LLC, and will be shipping it as part of the upcoming Visual Studio 2010 release. Teamprise is an Eclipse plugin (and related tools) for connecting to Team Foundation Server, Microsoft's source-control/project-management system. What's most interesting about this is not only that Microsoft has realized that heterogeneous development platforms are important to their developer customers, but the fact that Microsoft themselves will now be developing and shipping products based on those heterogeneous platforms, including 5 versions of Unix."

11 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Fully integrated Mono on Linux with Eclipse? by deanston · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I rather have the equivalent of VS on Linux than just another Eclipse plug-in. Here comes the Embrace...

  2. The more things change... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsoft themselves will now be developing and shipping products based on those heterogeneous platforms, including 5 versions of Unix.

    It isn't the first time. Microsoft used to provide tools for accessing Visual SourceSafe repositories from UNIX. Needless to say, these tools were utterly terrible yet allowed them to claim that VSS "supported UNIX". I don't expect Microsoft to go out of their way to "support UNIX" this time around any more than they did previously.

  3. Well ... by Norsefire · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "If Microsoft ever does applications for Linux it means I've won." - Linus Torvalds

    1. Re:Well ... by h4rm0ny · · Score: 5, Informative

      How does the language matter?

      Mono isn't a language per se. Mono is an import of the .Net framework. The trouble is that this framework is controlled by Microsoft. Firstly, the Windows version will always be ahead of other platforms relegating other platforms to inferior, buggy or feature incomplete versions. This could result in security vulnerabilities and lagging behind in version availability. More dangerous however, is that Microsoft can withdraw approval for Mono at any time, if they wish. If Mono became a popular basis for running software on Linux, then Microsoft could bring it all crashing down whenever they felt Linux had grown to be enough of a threat. Or they can start charging licence fees. Once a software base is installed, it can be very hard to move away from it *cough*Office*cough*.

      Basically, rather than true cross-platform compatability, what you get is Microsoft controlling a framework that Linux apps would become dependent on. A bad, vulnerable situation, imo. That's why I dislike proprietary systems such as Moonlight that are built on it. If we overhauled software patent law then it would be less of a threat, but it remains a technical advantage to Windows.

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  4. Believe it when I see it...restart my 7 year clock by lamapper · · Score: 5, Insightful
    To date, Microsoft has only hampered open source, open data formats, Linux, Unix and FOSS at every step of the way. So I do not believe it, can not believe it, will not believe it (words ~ FUD) until I see a 7 year positive track record with respects to anything non-Microsoft.

    When they have shown by their actions, over seven years, that they have changed, than and only than will I consider purchasing Microsoft products again.

    For each violation, I reset my 7 year clock from that day. Just reset it this week.

    Basing my purchase decisions on their actions ONLY and not their marketing FUD, is the only way I can be sure not to ever be vendor locked-in ever again. So much time and money has been wasted by me, my friends, my family and other IT professionals over the last 20+ years...wasteful and unnecessary.

    I will believe it when I see it. To date it has always been FUD!

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  5. Microsoft have done this before... by CuteSteveJobs · · Score: 5, Interesting

    > but the fact that Microsoft themselves will now be developing and shipping products based on those heterogeneous platforms, including 5 versions of Unix."

    Are you sure? You may find Microsoft do the same thing here and just strip the Linux functionality out. When Microsoft took over Connectix and their excellent Virtual PC Software and proceeded to strip Linux functionality (that was already there) out of the product. On the Connectix version there was a Linux utility that handled control back to Windows when the CPU was idle. On the Microsoft version they took that out, so the CPU always ran at 100%. It made Virtual PC useless for Linux.

  6. Re:Logic by wisty · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsoft has a policy to not use open source, because they can't guarantee it's pedigree. If a malicious person puts stolen code into an OSS project (or more realistically, if a programmer uses company resources to develop the code, without permission from the company; or somebody pastes GPL code into a BSD project) then people who rely on the code might be vulnerable to lawsuits. http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2007/05/02/why-microsoft-can-t-ship-open-source-code.aspx

    At least, that's their excuse.

    If open source was such a dangerous thing to touch, then I think Google, IBM and Apple would have been hit already.

  7. Would you buy? by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 5, Funny
    The question to anyone considering buying a Unix from MS is

    Would you buy a used horse from a convicted horse-rapist?

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    1. Re:Would you buy? by Zoshnell · · Score: 4, Funny

      Would you buy a used car from a used car rapist?

      --
      "Do you suppose that's why God lives in the Heavens? Because he lives in fear of His creations?" - Steve Buscemi
  8. 5 Microsoft versions of Linux by Huntr · · Score: 4, Funny

    Lemme guess: Home, Ultimate, Pro, Pro-er, and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

  9. Re:Logic by V!NCENT · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Microsoft has the manpower and the money to deliver. Their problem is backwards compatibility cruft and hardware support if they would start over.

    Given the fact that Linux already poses a thread to Windows, it would not hurt for Microsoft do develop and releasy a Unix(y), free software OS alongside of Windows. Why?

    A) To prove that they can actually make a good OS. Press and restecpa right there.
    B) They can offer a stable and advanced OS to people/companies that do not care about legacy compatibility.
    C) They can always port over a closed source version of Office and make it compatible with exchange and whatnot (and release that code under a free software license that is like the GPL, but isn't so that Linux projects can't take over that very code
    D) Keep marketshare. If people don't want to use Windows anyway; they can use their other OS.

    Everybody would probably be happy.

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