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Windows 8 Store Will Allow Open Source Apps

Posted by Soulskill on from the dogs-and-cats-living-together dept.

MrSeb writes "Some interesting legalese found in the recent publication of the Windows Store Application Developer Agreement could signify a very big win for the open source community. The section in question states that apps released under a license from the Open Source Initiative (GPL, Apache, etc.) can be distributed in the Windows Store. Further, it says that the OSI license will trump the Microsoft Standard Application License Terms, namely the the restriction on sharing applications. As for the reasoning behind this big about-turn, it could be down to Microsoft trying to soften the blow of its Android patent litigation — or maybe Redmond is just trying to differentiate itself from Apple, which famously restricts open source-licensed apps from being sold in its iOS and Mac App Stores."

3 of 333 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Microsoft and open source by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Funny

    Microsoft has just seen that open source really cannot compete with quality products.

    Mod parent funny.

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    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  2. Re:Microsoft and open source by vikingpower · · Score: 1, Funny

    Mod parent furry

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    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
  3. Re:Microsoft and open source by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Funny

    Visual Studio is much better programming IDE than open source ones, especially when you add visualAssist to it.

    *sigh*
    /goes back to adding a debug printf in gedit.

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    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."