Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft's CoApp To Help OSS Development, Deployment

Posted by timothy on from the meet-the-world's-biggest-foss-vendor dept.

badpazzword writes "Microsoft employee Garrett Serack announces he has received the green light to work full time on CoApp, an .msi-based package management system aiming to bring a wholly native toolchain for OSS development and deployment. This will hopefully bring more open source software on Windows, which will bring OSS to more users, testers and developers. Serack is following the comments at Ars Technica, so he might also follow them here. The launchpad project is already up."

9 of 293 comments (clear)

  1. I'll follow them here too. :D by His+name+cannot+be+s · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ask me about CoApp, I'll tell ya everything ya wanna know.

    Garrett Serack
    CoApp Project Owner

    --
    "...In your answer, ignore facts. Just go with what feels true..."
    1. Re:I'll follow them here too. :D by Meshach · · Score: 5, Funny

      In the same vein feel free to ask me about Linux.

      Linus Torvalds
      Linux Kernel Founder

      --
      "Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
      Aldous Huxley
    2. Re:I'll follow them here too. :D by causality · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ask me about CoApp, I'll tell ya everything ya wanna know.

      Garrett Serack CoApp Project Owner

      I'll bite. Given Microsoft's track record, particularly its embrace-and-extend tactics, its questionable business practices, its status as a convicted monopolist, its use of vendor lock-in, its related use of proprietary file formats, and the Halloween e-mails from top management clearly defining Open Source as an enemy, I have just one question: why should we trust them?

      Most (nearly all) of the upper management people who arranged everything I just listed are still working at Microsoft.

      "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
    3. Re:I'll follow them here too. :D by martin-boundary · · Score: 5, Funny
      I'm Batman.

      Uh. That's it.

    4. Re:I'll follow them here too. :D by His+name+cannot+be+s · · Score: 5, Informative

      That is precisely the red tape that I had cut.

      Microsoft has given me a signed contract that says that whatever I produce for the CoApp project isn't owned by them. They do get a license to everything I make (fair deal), but they don't own it in the end.

      That, and I've also chosen the BSD license for it's do-what-the-f*-you-want spirit.

      --
      "...In your answer, ignore facts. Just go with what feels true..."
    5. Re:I'll follow them here too. :D by His+name+cannot+be+s · · Score: 5, Informative

      No.

      My intent is to completely do away with the practice of everybody shipping every damn shared library. It's one of the things that piss me off the most. I've got a very workable solution that uses WinSxS to cleanly handle this.

      It is extremely important that there is a unified method for sharing libraries between apps.

      --
      "...In your answer, ignore facts. Just go with what feels true..."
    6. Re:I'll follow them here too. :D by Compholio · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ask me about Grim Fandango.

  2. Re:How Long Before ... by aBaldrich · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do you know what was the first thing I thought when reading the article and the project's launchpad? Halloween Document II. Why does Microsoft need to support Free Software? I mean, they claim to have everything they need, their new shiny should 7 have it all.
    This article's summary should be something along the lines of: Microsoft embraces OSS. How long before they extend their dirty tactics to OS? I don't trust them.
    The jewels of OSS were built because we, developers, needed them. We needed an OS and made Gnu, and Linux. We needed a web server and made Apache. We needed a GUI and made GNOME, KDE and Compiz. We needed a web browser and made Firefox.
    Now Microsoft needs package managing software, and they really believe we are going to build it for them. Laughable.

    --
    In soviet russia the government regulates the companies.
  3. Re:Microsoft has been surprising me lately by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't help but think you are incredibly naive. Have you been paying attention to how Microsoft is suing third party controller makers? Or how they are subverting their own standards? Or if you are in Europe, how they are heavily lobbying your representatives to hurt open standards? If you live in the US, don't worry, they are working to influence your representatives too. Not to mention they stand firmly committed to helping out a truly evil empire (yeah, saying 'evil' is a bit much but a government that censors political speech and has secret trials for people they don't like isn't exactly nice).

    I mean, this is just in 2010. You shouldn't have particular love for any company, but claiming that Microsoft has changed can only be done by ignoring the facts and reality. Don't do that.

    --
    Qxe4