Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Does Microsoft Have the Best App Store For Open Source Developers?

Posted by timothy on from the so-how-does-that-beat-android? dept.

WebMink writes "Microsoft seems to have been in combat against the GNU GPL throughout the history of free and open source software. But that may be changing. They have recently updated the terms of use for software developers in their Windows Phone app store to allow any OSI-approved open source license — even the GPL. They include extraordinarily broad language that gives the open source license priority over their own license terms, saying: 'If your Application or In-App Product includes FOSS, your license terms may conflict with the limitations set forth in Section 3 of the Standard Application License Terms, but only to the extent required by the FOSS that you use.' Could it be that the most open source friendly app stores will be the ones run my Microsoft?"

8 of 339 comments (clear)

  1. Bill? by lorinc · · Score: 5, Funny

    Could it be that the most open source friendly app stores will be the ones run my Microsoft?"

    Bill, is that you?

    --
    Video of some good progressive thrash music
  2. Apple bites the hand that created them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apples entire software ecosystem rides on top of free and open source software. There aren't enough superlatives to describe the hight of their hypocrisy. Come on Apple, stop the the stupid bullshit. Your business was rescued from the trash bin of history by your decision to refactor your entire operating system strategy around open source components. The very genesis of Apple was the result of communal sharing of information. Now you stiff arm the very same developers who made your success possible. There is no excuse for this.

  3. People seem to forget by andydread · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ms has always tried to get popular FOSS applications running decent on their platform in a futile attempt to negate the need to run GNU/Linux for those said apps. Then when Linux became the killer app Ms went out of their way to accomodate Linux on their hyper-v system. This is not because they want Linux or FOSS around in the marketplace. They know that if they do not accomodate FOSS their system will become more and more marginalized by emerging tech.

  4. Not Bill Gates' Microsoft by MikeRT · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let's look at the bigger picture...

    1) Windows 7 is arguably the best desktop OS out there right now for the vast majority of the public. Even many of the Apple fans I know, myself included, have been forced to concede that Windows 7 is better than OS X in many ways.
    2) Microsoft has started to really become an advocate for open standards to the point of throwing IE 9 under the bus and repeatedly rolling the bus over it in front of their customers.
    3) Microsoft's tools produce standards compliant web output.
    4) Microsoft has officially incorporated jQuery into their web process and extended it in an open way to make it really work with Visual Studio.
    5) Microsoft has never once threatened Mono or any open source .NET effort even as the Java world was nearly torn apart recently.
    6) Microsoft has spent the last decade really ramping up their security efforts in what amounts to a "come to Jesus experience" on security.
    7) Microsoft is starting to allow their own products like ASP.NET MVC to go FOSS.

    I give them credit as a former Microsoft-hated, Apple-loving Java/JavaScript/Groovy/Ruby developer. This isn't Bill Gates' Microsoft. It's actually a damn shame that it's not Steven Sinofsky's Microsoft because that might have played a truly dangerous stalking horse to Tim Cook's Apple.

  5. Re:No by causality · · Score: 5, Informative

    Companies don't survive (and thrive) as long as they do without some forward thinking.

    Or a strangehold monopoly on an entire market. That helps too.

    --
    It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
  6. Re:Microsoft and Open Source don't mix by kthreadd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I personally would never code open source software for Microsoft APP store to benefit... #deathtowidowsphone #longliveandroid

    Microsoft has published some of its software as open source, including their F# compiler and several .NET libraries like Entity Framework and ASP.NET MVC. They have also contributed to the Linux kernel.

    Microsft and Open Soure clearly mix; what could be said is that Microsoft is not (yet) open source first.

  7. Re:so they can steal your code by d33tah · · Score: 5, Informative

    Improving the code in a proprietary product without releasing the patches to the public. That's stealing. And that's what Microsoft had already done at least once: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ms+gpl+violation

  8. Re:Microsoft and Open Source don't mix by worldthinker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sorry, but you deal with Microsoft at your peril. It is in their DNA to "steal", misappropriate,, strong arm, and every other dirty trick to disadvantage technical partners and they do it to this day. Ask Nokia how they feel about their business prospects. Or the legions of companies that have experienced the same rapacious partnerships.

    Ask HP how they feel about MS potentially buying Dell?

    Oh, and lest we forget, the legal suits against Linux are still winding their way through the courts and it was MS chief in the background backing those suits.

    I am in agreement with Admiral Akbar.