Microsoft finally acknowledges that open source is mainstream
Microsoft just announced the obvious: open source is an increasingly critical (and common) component of software today, including proprietary software. The open-source software in question is jQuery, an excellent open-source javascript library that Microsoft will be including in its Visual Studio application development platform.
Of course, this has always been the case at Microsoft, what with MSN Messenger and other products incorporating open-source components for years, but this is perhaps the first time that Microsoft has publicly welcomed open source as part of its software infrastructure, and has shown a desire to contribute back to existing communities. Microsoft's Scott Hanselman enthusiastically acknowledges the inclusion of jQuery:
...[W]e're using jQuery just as it is. It's Open Source, and we'll use it and ship it via its MIT license, unchanged. If there's changes we want, we'll submit a patch just like anyone else. JQuery will also have full support from PSS (Product Support Services) like any other Microsoft product, starting later this year. Folks have said Microsoft would never include Open Source in the platform, I'm hoping this move is representative of a bright future.
Me, too. Microsoft is too big and too important a company to have ignored the missing ingredient in its open-source strategy: contribution back to existing communities. Open source can be a fantastic complement to Microsoft's existing products and to its businesses. Open source is a tool. It's a means to an end, not an end in and of itself.
Did Microsoft finally join the open-source community? It looks like it from here. Now if we can just keep Ballmer quiet for a few months so that this seed sprout and begin to grow....
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
I do hope they play nice. jQuery is a darn nice JS library and it would benefit everyone getting another huge heap of developers behind it.
... Let's just hope it sticks!
- Not Linux
- Not copyleft (note the MIT license in this case)
- Adds value to their product line at no cost.
How is this any different than when they snuggled up to the Apache and Zend? Or incorporated Python into .NET?
- by penguiniator October 1, 2008 9:49 AM PDT
- They're blowing a mighty big horn over this use of a single library, which, as was already mentioned, is under a very permissive MIT license. Or maybe they just have their public announcement amplifier set too high. No matter. I'm sure it's as significant as they, and you, say it is.
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(5 Comments)Does no one remember that they used to include the tcp/ip stack from freeBSD in Windows 95 and siblings? No? It's understandable. Those were the days before Open Source was even invented as a marketing term, and it preceded the days when Microsoft publicly decried Linux as a communist movement, when it was more advantageous for them to HIDE their use of iron curtain technology, instead of PROCLAIM it PROUDLY. It's kind of like the difference between hiding porn under your bed and buying a billboard saying you do.
Alright, they included a single 15KB library from among thousands available and have announced that they could even contribute back to its development. Wow... I'm so impressed by this. I just can't tell ya. Again, it's like the difference between snatching up used copies of smut magazines and considering paying for a subscription. (I'm having way too much fun with this.)
One day, maybe Microsoft will grow out of its awkward attitude toward Free Software and will be able to look it straight in the eye without feeling it necessary to compensate for how uncomfortable they actually are.
Am I missing something here? Or are you really as gullible as Microsoft hopes everyone is over this?