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There was a day when Microsoft's confidential internal documents had to be leaked in order to show the company's views on open source (dubbed the "Halloween Documents" by Eric Raymond). Not so anymore. We haven't had a leak in a few years, but we've had more information than ever on what Microsoft intends to do about open source.

Unfortunately, the older Microsoft gets, the more complex its relationship with open source becomes, as the following "Halloween Documents" demonstrate:

It's official. GPLv3 is "open source." The Open Source Iniative (OSI) formally announced it today.

Now, most of you (like I, frankly) didn't think this was ever seriously in doubt. But the license took some heat at times on license-discuss, and needed to undergo the same process that every other truly open-source license must go through.

The community is better for this scrutiny. There are things about the process that undoubtedly need improvement. But at least a process exists, which is much more than one can say for the proprietary world. Try finding any sort of … Read more

I just read Glyn Moody's post on the importance of open data and, increasingly, open source, in science. Good science requires good data--data available to any who want to replicate another's results and ensure that true science is going on, not pseudo-science.

Marry that to Tim O'Reilly's insistence that data, not code, is the new lock-in (and cross that with my own declaration that Microsoft's new platform for lock-in is Sharepoint, not Office), and you end up with what I think is an implicit, urgent need in open source today:

The need to ensure data remains free/open.… Read more

That's the word I thought of when I read this article on how open-source license proliferation threatens adoption of open source in the enterprise. I stopped thinking of license proliferation as a serious threat to open source back in 2004 when the Open Source Initiative last beat this drum. Since then it has been very clear that license proliferation is a minor threat at best.

The analyst Saugatuck disagrees:… Read more

Michael Tiemann has an excellent piece on open-source licensing over on his Open Source Initiative (OSI) blog. He captures what I've been trying to say about Microsoft's application for OSI certification, in part (though he doesn't address this in his blog), as well as the importance of open-source licensing, generally.

Want the CliffsNotes? Open-source licensing works because it breeds trust in process and code, not in people.

What does this mean?… Read more

It's almost funny (almost) to see how out-of-context my words can be taken. On one side, I can have Microsoft calling me to ask me to not criticize the company as I so often do (here and here and here and here and here and here and here and....you get the point).

Then I have Groklaw suggesting that I'm wrong to think the OSI shouldn't discriminate against groups bringing licenses to it based on past behavior. I would have thought that, if weighed in the balance, people would tend to find me anti-Microsoft (though I admit I don't find it hard at all to separate out Microsoft's products from its strategies). But not enough for some in the open-source community, apparently. This is unfortunate, as I'm a regular reader and supporter of the work that Pamela does at Groklaw.

The sad thing is, the OSI and the open-source community may have brought this upon ourselves.… Read more

I really, really don't understand this. I understand that Microsoft has a history of aggression against open source, as Chris DiBona wrote recently on the Open Source Initiative's (OSI) license-discuss e-mail list. I compete with Microsoft and have for many years. I get that Microsoft has been bad.

But discrimination is explicitly against the OSI's Open Source Definition, as Bill Hilf noted in responding to criticism from Google's Chris DiBona on the e-mail thread:… Read more

I moderated a panel yesterday that included John Roberts, CEO of SugarCRM, as well as Danese Cooper, Open Source Initiative (OSI) board member. I was a bit surprised to find John criticize the OSI's make-up and mechanics, as The Register notes, but I can't say that I disagree with those complaints. John's basic point - for the OSI to have stronger resonance within the community should reflect that community - seems like a sound one.

But how do we get there from here?… Read more

There is an ugly feeling growing against Microsoft in its attempts to have a few of its shared-source licenses certified as OSI (Open Source Initiative)-approved. The general sentiment is that OSI approval is for everyone except Microsoft.

I compete with Microsoft. My livelihood depends on beating Microsoft. I have worked for two companies that have been run over by Microsoft and its leveraging of monopoly power. I'm at least as familiar with Microsoft's legal and business tactics as most people, and probably more so than most. I've been on the losing end of Microsoft's monopoly power more than once.

But I don't believe in discrimination. Not even of the "bad guys."… Read more