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Microsoft .Net Libraries Not Acting "Open Source"

Posted by kdawson on from the promises-broken-or-forgotten dept.

figleaf writes "Three years ago, with much fanfare, Microsoft announced it would make some of the .Net libraries open source using the Microsoft Reference License. Since then Microsoft has reneged on its promise. The reference code site is dead, the blog hasn't been updated in a year and a half, and no one from Microsoft responds to questions on the forum."

5 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. Summary Misleading by SomeJoel · · Score: 5, Informative

    I know it's fun to bash Microsoft and all, but the source site here is not, in fact, dead. The other points in TFS might be valid, but I have doubts as to the poster's credibility. I believe this "figleaf" character may just be trying to score some free karma or jollies or something by inciting the standard "M$ sux" response.

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    1. Re:Summary Misleading by Utopia · · Score: 4, Informative

      They fixed it as soon as this story was posted. Tricky Microsoft!
      Look at the forums. It was dead for more than a week.

  2. Re:Forking by Florian+Weimer · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, it's not an open source license. You get to see the source code, but you have no rights beyond that. Preparing derivative works is not allowed.

    I believe source code access functionality is now integrated into Visual Studio, so it is not surprising that the web site is not updated anymore.

  3. Re:Of course by Vahokif · · Score: 4, Informative

    You mean like Mono? The submission is (intentionally or out of ignorance) trying to confuse the read-but-don't-touch "open source" reference implementation that no one uses, their legally binding promise not to sue anyone using open source implementations, and the stuff they have licensed under the OSI-approved MS-PL license.

  4. Re:This should have been seen from the start by man_of_mr_e · · Score: 5, Informative

    First, Microsoft did not promise anything open source. They promised a read-only shared source version under the reference license. They delivered that, and are still delivering it, though as of yet no .net 4.0 libraries.. but that's only a couple of weeks old.

    The reason the site hasn't been maintained was the the functionality was moved into visual studio for automatic download. It's just a part of the tools now.

    Basically, the entire story is wrong.

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