Is Microsoft Embracing Open Source?
August 23, 2011
We think many companies are playing kiss kiss with open source. The problem, of course, is the Oracle Google legal hassle over Java. The outcome of the legal dust up may throw some cold water on the flames of passion between a giant company and open source software.
With the tech world slowly moving more toward an open-source community, Microsoft, who has closely guarded its secrets, is feeling the pressure to open up a little. The article, Solving Microsoft’s Hard Problem, on The H Online, gives some insight into how Microsoft can make the transition to an open-source provider of software and hardware.
Glyn Moody, the author of the article, recommends that Microsoft take baby steps in becoming open-source, and .NET Gadgeteer is a good first move. The article quotes Microsoft for the description of .NET Gadgeteer:
Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer is an open-source toolkit for building small electronic devices using the .NET Micro Framework and Visual Studio/Visual C# Express. Gadgeteer combines the advantages of object-oriented programming, solderless assembly of electronics with a kit of peripherals, and support for quick form-factor construction using computer-aided design. This powerful combination allows embedded and handheld devices to be iteratively designed, built and programmed in a matter of hours rather than days or weeks.
Microsoft gets their idea for .NET Gadgeteer from Arduino, a huge success in the open-source hardware game.
As far as Microsoft taking the next step of staying involved and ‘nurturing a broader ecosystem’ surrounding the project, there is hope. Almost as soon as Microsoft introduced Kinect, hackers began trying to mod to hardware. A website devoted Kinect tweaking, OpenKinect, even went as far as offering a money-prize for the first person who could get Kinect to work with Windows or another PC system.
Microsoft initially threatened legal action against those hacking away at Kinect, but has since announced that they purposefully left certain elements of Kinect unprotected for such tweaking. Uh, huh.
Regardless of whether or not hackers successfully worked their way into Kinect, the take-away is that Microsoft is finally allowing and working with those desiring an open-source relationship. There is hope for Microsoft, yet.
We can envision Microsoft taking a hard look at the costs of certain enterprise software and weighing the cost savings versus the risk of open source software.
Catherine Lamsfuss, August 23, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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2 Responses to “Is Microsoft Embracing Open Source?”
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Microsoft has had it’s open source CodePlex.com running for years wit more than a million pages accordng to Google. Of coursem, that could be less than half that in terms of actual projects, and even less than that of useful projects.
Nonetheless, MS has been wading into the open soure pool for years. It may be doubtful whether they will see the light, follow Apple’s lead, and create a ‘Windows windows manager’ to run on any Linux remains to be seen.
Microsoft is on the right path for open source. While guarding it’s newer core Windows OS secrets for business sustainability, reveals the relevant technologies for better software development and integration. For a more elaborate opinion, feel free to visit: http://rambletech.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/microsoft-is-also-part-of-open-source/