More Open-Source Morsels on Microsoft's Plate?
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What technologies will Microsoft open source next and when will it open source them? Industry watchers have been speculating on these questions since Microsoft released its Windows Installer (WiX) and Windows template-library components under the Common Public License (CPL) — a bona fide open-source license — earlier this year as part of a Microsoft open-sourcing experiment. Microsoft opted to release WiX and the template library via the Open Source Development Network (OSDN) SourceForge repository. And the company is gearing up to do the same again, it seems, possibly by the time the LinuxWorld trade show kicks off the first week of August, according to a published report. Read More From Microsoft on Why It Went With CPL and SourceForge When asked whether Microsoft will release more of its technologies on SourceForge at LinuxWorld, a Microsoft spokesman said the company had "nothing official to announce at this time." But he added the Redmond software maker is continuing to talk to OSDN. A spokeswoman representing OSDN also declined to comment, but did not deny that Microsoft is talking with OSDN about making more of its technologies available under an open-source license on SourceForge. So what's likely to be next? Neither Microsoft nor OSDN would name specific products. But in June, Microsoft officials stated publicly that Microsoft had more technologies ready to distribute under some kind of open-source license — and not just development tools. While no one's expecting Microsoft to make its Windows or Office crown jewels available via open source, Microsoft could opt to release pieces of its core products available in this way. The most likely candidates would be Microsoft technologies with "non-recoverable market share that are under great competitive pressure," said one developer who formerly worked at Microsoft, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Possible examples, according to the developer: Read More on Microsoft's Market-Share Fixation on the Next Page ("What's Microsoft Open Sourcing Next?" Page 2) "At Microsoft, there's a total fixation on losing market share," the developer said. SourceSafe, Visual Studio and IIS are all in heated battles with their open-source competitors, he said. In the case of IIS, Microsoft already has fallen behind, in terms of market share, he pointed out. Sources close to Microsoft noted there has been talk about open sourcing parts of IIS, as this "would make sense" for the company and help address the competitive threat posed by Apache. Other rumors have been circulating that Microsoft might opt to open-source the Common Language Runtime (CLR) component of the .Net Framework. Microsoft officials have not denied these rumors, but have that the company currently makes the CLR available via its own Shared Source licensing program. Microsoft is expected to continue to rely on the CPL, rather than another open-source licensing option, as it releases more code as open source.
Other vendors have also used the CPL to license their open source projects. Computer Associates in May announced the creation of the CA Trusted Open Source License (CA-TOSL), a derivative of the CPL, available from Opensource.org. CA's Ingres Enterprise Relational Database will be released into the open-source community under that new license.
But other companies like Sun Microsystems, Inc., which is planning to open source its Solaris operating system, are looking beyond the current licenses available.
Sun is considering eschewing the commonly deployed GPL (GNU General Public License) and is exploring the possibility of creating a unique open-source license for Solaris, similar to what IBM did with The Apache Software Foundation so IBM could use Apache for its Eclipse and WebSphere projects. Microsoft recently purchased technology covered by the Apache open-source license: The Lookout e-mail search engine from Lookout Software. Microsoft is currently offering the 1.2 version of Lookout for download from its Web site. When asked whether Microsoft planned to continue to distribute Lookout under the Apache license, a Microsoft spokesman declined to comment. |
