Microsoft Open Sources and Forks Windows Live Writer Into Open Live Writer
SmartAboutThings writes: Windows Live Writer is a blogging tool that Microsoft originally released back in 2006, and it still remains popular today, which has prompted Microsoft to promise that it will make it open source earlier this year. Now the company has officially open-sourced and forked Windows Live Writer into Open Live Writer, having put its repositories on GitHub already.
I'm waiting for them to open source Comic Chat.
Perhaps you care too much for something that doesn't really matter.
I got a Troll +1 once (vs Troll -1) and don't even know if that's good or bad.
Troll +5 would be funnier though.
I actually use Windows Live Writer. It's a nice interface to write in, attach photos to a blog post, set categories, and upload the whole thing while scheduling when it will go live. I began using it years ago when WordPress' built-in editor was horrible. WordPress has improved since then, but I still like WLW. Recently, I had begun to worry that WLW was going to be tossed aside and not developed anymore. Open sourcing it gives me hope that people can continue to improve the product and keep it as a viable, locally installed alternative editor to WordPress' built-in editor.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
"Today: Most Anyone Today any regular Slashdot reader is probably eligible to become a moderator. A variety of factors weigh into it, but if you are logged in when you browse Slashdot comments, you might occasionally be granted moderator access. Don't worry about it- Just keep reading this document and learn what to do about it! Who It's probably the most difficult part of the process: Who is allowed to moderate. On one hand, many people say "Everyone", but I've chosen to avoid that path because the potential for abuse is so great. Instead, I've set up a few simple rules for determining who is eligible to moderate. Logged In User If the system can't keep track, it won't work, so you gotta log in. Sorry if you're paranoid, but this system demands a certain level of accountability. Regular Slashdot Readers The scripts track average accesses from each logged in user. It then selects eligible users who read an average number of times. The homepage doesn't count either. It then picks users from the middle of the pack- no obsessive compulsive reloaders, and nobody who just happened to read an article this week. Long Time Readers The system throws out the newest few thousand accounts. This prevents people from creating new accounts to simply get moderator access, but more importantly, means that newbies will have to be part of the community for a few weeks before they gain access to the controls to a system they don't understand. Willing to Serve If you don't want to moderate, just visit your user preferences, and set yourself as 'Unwilling' Positive Contributors Slashdot tracks your "Karma" (see the FAQ). If you have non negative Karma, this means you have posted more good comments than bad, and are eligible to moderate. This weeds out spam accounts. So the end result is a pool of eligible users that represent (hopefully) average, positive slashdot contributors. Occasionally (well, every 30 minutes actually) the system checks the number of comments that have been posted, and gives a proportionate amount of eligible users "Tokens". When any user acquires a certain number of tokens, they become a moderator. This means that you'll need to be eligible for many of these slices in order to actually gain access. It all works to make sure that everyone takes turns, and nobody can abuse the system, and that only "regular" readers become moderators (as opposed to some random newbie ;)"
If you work with multiple blogs on several servers, WLW allowed you to do all your writing/editing from one place.
Yeah - as several other folks have posted - WLW was pretty good. It was simple and had only the necessary bells-whistles. Followed the KISS principle - I couldn't believe MS created it. The only thing to come out of the "Windows Live" era that was any good.
I liked it because I did most of my writing offline (disconnected) - plus it produced "real" HTML without lots of frames-in-frames.
As for MS open sourcing it - why not? The new sheriff has committed MS to Open Source - so rather than kill off something that many liked - just upload it on SourceFor^H^H^H^H....github and enjoy the independent life.
They are releasing this stuff OpenSource, because the ecosystem is filled with similar tools that work just as well, and Microsoft needs to be relevant. Would you use these tools if they weren't free or open source? Of course not. It is out of necessity.
Microsoft is becoming less relevant each passing day. With Chromebooks, iPads, Android, iOS and whatever else is "next", there are more viable choices now than ever before.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.