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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."

8 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Of course by Millennium · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The scary part here is that I'm sure plenty of people here are surprised. I wasn't ready to trust Microsoft, and I'm sure many others here weren't either, but an astonishing number of people -including some people in very high places, and yes, Mr. de Icaza, I am looking at you- were. Enough that there were flamewars any time anything remotely .NET-related or Mono-related came up.

    Hopefully, we'll be able to get on with our lives now. This has happened before, and will probably happen again, and the community always survives. Some very interesting tools will either die or need to be ported, but that's always how it goes.

  2. Misleading by Vahokif · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's the reference implementation, which is under a read-but-don't-touch-license. .NET itself is an open specification you can read whenever you want, and they recently made a legally binding promise not to sue anyone for using an alternate implementation (like Mono).

  3. Big chunks released under Apache license by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Large parts of .NET, namely those that are using in the .NET Micro framework, have been released under the Apache license.

  4. I Was With You Until... by Petersko · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "We're all warm and fluffy with open source, we're a safe alternative to java, honest, look."

    I was getting your point until you hit Java. After watching the litany of trainwrecks that is the expensive java experiment in our company, Microsoft IS a safe alternative. In fact, I'd rather replace all our "successful because they delivered" java projects with a group of elderly asians with abacuses... aba... abacii? That'd be a warm and fluffy alternative to Java.

    In other areas of the company they've been delivering .Net projects successfully, so I'm hardpressed to defend Java. We hired expensive, proven guns, too. We didn't half-ass it.

  5. It's because FOSS is no longer the biggest fear by ygslash · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Three years ago, the FOSS movement looked like one of the biggest potential threats against Microsoft. This move was designed to mitigate that threat, so it was worth investing energy in it. The idea was to dilute the concept of FOSS in the mind of the public, thereby weakening the FOSS "brand" as a competitor.

    Today, it is appears that Apple and Google are far bigger threats to Microsoft than FOSS ever will be. So Microsoft will not be investing significant energy in trying to dilute the concept of FOSS anymore.

    1. Re:It's because FOSS is no longer the biggest fear by c++0xFF · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Today, it is appears that Apple and Google are far bigger threats to Microsoft than FOSS ever will be.

      Both Google and Apple are significant supporters of FOSS. Maybe the enemy hasn't changed all that much? Maybe Google and Apple wouldn't be so threatening had their attacks on FOSS been more successful?

  6. Re:Forking by Utopia · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It works only if the reference code site is alive.
    The site was dead for a week. I check it a few hours ago when debugging is Visual Studio.
    Microsoft seems to have restarted the site when this story hit Slashdot!

  7. Re:This should have been seen from the start by Saint+Gerbil · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The "express" version is free, limited yes but you can get to the documentation TFA is about through it.

    http://www.microsoft.com/express/