Microsoft Gets Closer to Open Source Goodness
February 13, 2013
Is that a pig I see flying by the window? Or, as Simon Phipps at InfoWorld puts it, “Has Microsoft Finally Embraced Open Source?” The company recently added support for the open-source version-control system Git to its developer tool Visual Studio. It looks to us like the Microsoft leopard may be changing its spots in order to follow in IBM‘s footprints.
Phipps notes that he has observed other positive signs, like changes to the developer terms for the Windows Phone that favor open-source licenses. At the same time, though, the company is still showing signs of hostility. It has accused the city of Munich, Germany, of under-reporting the costs of its Linux-based system, going so far as to commission a “secret report” to bolster its charges. The apparent contradiction, the article notes, stems from the fact that Microsoft (like any corporation) is actually a collection of divisions, teams, and individuals, some of which have different perspectives from others. Phipps writes:
“Microsoft is on a long march toward accepting the market inevitability of open source, but the right foot doesn’t always know what the left is doing. The company is still fighting open source on the desktop, while staying mostly silent about its taxation of open source usage (in the form of ‘royalties’ for supposed software patent infringements, in return for promising not to litigate). Other teams see the wisdom of nonconfrontation, while some —such as the developer tools team —seems to want to engage in a positive way.
“When corporations embark on such a journey, it remains smart and reasonable for communities to assume that previous behavior will continue until a clear pattern of experience shows otherwise.”
Good point; the open source community would be wise to keep its guard up until a company-wide shift in its favor has been unequivocally declared. However, there is nothing wrong with indulging in a little hope.
Cynthia Murrell, February 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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