Microsoft starts distributing open-source Drupal

The single biggest distributor of Drupal just might be Microsoft. As I discovered from Dries Buytaert's blog on Wednesday, Microsoft's Web Application Installer comes with out-of-the-box support for Drupal, OScommerce, and other popular open-source Web applications.

The Web Application Installer Beta is designed to help get you up and running with the most widely used Web applications freely available for your Windows Server. Web AI provides support for popular ASP.net and PHP Web applications, including Graffiti, DotNetNuke, WordPress, Drupal, OSCommerce, and more.

With just a few simple clicks, Web AI will check your machine for the necessary prerequisites, download these applications from their source location in the community, walk you through basic configuration items, and then install them on your computer.

While this doesn't technically make Microsoft a distributor of these open-source "bits," it comes pretty darn close, and it arguably puts Microsoft on the legal hook for this open-source code. I personally think that's a safe bet, but then, I don't work for Microsoft, a company whose CEO has called open-source code like that of Linux a "cancer."

Times change, and so does the rhetoric?

Anyway, it's good to see Microsoft recognizing the obvious: the world's best Web applications don't come from Microsoft. They're open source, and they carry funky labels like "Drupal," "DotNetNuke," and so on.

[rapier1]

Does the best software in the world come from open source? I guess that really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. There are some great open source applications and frameworks. There are, in some cases, closed source code that is significantly better. An IT professional can't be dogmatic - they need to be flexible and willing to use the optimal solution whatever the source.

[Savio.Rodrigues]

Matt, according to the license agreement, Microsoft lawyers would not agree that Microsoft is "distributing" open source: ;-)

?THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE. This software enables you to obtain software applications from other sources. Those applications are offered and distributed by third parties under their own license terms. Microsoft is not distributing those applications to you, but instead, as a convenience, enables you to use this software to obtain those applications directly from the application providers. By using the software, you acknowledge and agree that you are obtaining the applications directly from the third party providers and under separate license terms, and that it is your responsibility to locate, understand and comply with those license terms."

[plbyrd]

@Savio,

Don't go stating facts and quoting license agreements, Matt cannot handle them. Also don't let this quip about the best web applications are open source get to you. Anyone who has used Sharepoint realizes that it has no peer and the power it provides is amazing.

[kojacked]

"Anyone who has used Sharepoint realizes that it has no peer and the power it provides is amazing."

Now that's hitting Matt where it hurts! :) Pwned!

Nothing like having your head burried in the open source sand...

[tracy_anne]

DotNetNuke is fully supported by Microsoft, and may just as well be a Microsoft product. It's designed to make .NET attrctive to Open Source Developers. Personally I don't recommend it, as it ties you to the Microsoft platform.

[maverick_nick]

In face DotNetNuke evolved from iBuySpy, which was developed by Microsoft to demonstrate the capabilities of .NET. That project was forked and DotNetNuke was born as an open source project and Share Point was the proprietary version.

[zeroplane]

Say what?
"Sharepoint has no peer and the power it provides is amazing"

For what, displaying a list of files online that only IE will display?

I have used over nine different content management systems and web-based file management frameworks/cms both were closed source and open source in over four different development platforms and languages and none of them sucked as bad as Sharepoint. PERIOD....

Ok put your tinfoil hat back on and guzzle the coolaid.

[maverick_nick]

"...displaying a list of files online that only IE will display?"

Have you actually used sharepoint, because it doesn't sound like you have any idea of what sharepoint can do? This is typical - an uneducated person with a lot of hot air to get out.

[storm14k]

It does sound like he has used Sharepoint because he came to the same conclusion as alot of others. Many supposedly like it. But everytime I have had to use it or come across other developers that have had to use it we all agree its pointless. Out of the box it does nothing of great value and once you start developing on top of it you find that you could have done the same thing without it. Only business managers seem to want to use it because they saw some other group or company use it.

[plbyrd]

@strom14k

Don't confuse the Sharepoint Services, which is a free component of Windows Server 2003, with Sharepoint Server, which is a complete and infinitely extensible CMS. If all you did was load Sharepoint Services and browse to the default page you would indeed be quite disappointed.

[t8]

Microsoft don't allow their stuff on Open Source, yet they are now taking Open Source for their stuff.

I really dislike Microsoft and everything they stand for.

[maverick_nick]

Boo hoo hoo you darn hippie. Not everything in the world is free.

I don't have a problem with open source per se. What I have a problem with is distributing binaries free of charge. Open source is supposed to be for the benefit of developers, and not for end users to get a free ride. Most pro open source people will never even look at the source code. You should be calling yourself pro freeware.

You people make me sick [you're a darn cancer]!

[t8]

I am allowed to dislike them.

[Hardcode]

Linux doesn't seem to have reached the level of "cancer" with Microsoft. Sun, on the other hand, might see things a bit differently.

It seems to me that that the daily verbal whipping MS gets from os community goes far beyond a comment like that.

The MS developer community has put great pressure on MS to do the kind of things they are doing with their web platform now. And they seem to be listening.

Full disclosure: As an independant consultant, I develop software for business using Microsoft products. I also require compensation for my services(I hope that doesn't make me EVIL).

[t8]

No that doesn't make you evil, but abusing a monopoly at the expense of customers, and taking other people's stuff does. Open Source is a protection against such abuses and it works wonderfully.

[maverick_nick]

You make all the money you want and don't bother open sourcing your stuff. If software developers are expected to give away their hard work for free, then so should every other profession. People whom want things for free are leaches and they disgust me.

[plbyrd]

@maveric_nick

Uh oh, don't go and read the GNU Manifesto, you might blow a gasket.

[storm14k]

It doesn't make you evil. It just makes you......you. Some of us do the same thing and use open source technologies. I personally have nothing against MS. I just don't care for most of their offerings and don't see the benefit in the additional costs. To some MS users and developers that makes ME evil.

[maverick_nick]

If open source is viewed as free software then it is a cancer. Open source supposed to be for the benefit of developers, where we can make progress without having to reinvent the wheel, we can fix problems when we find them, and complete projects more rapidly. I'm all for that, but what I'm totally against is the distribution of free binaries!!! The reason why so many consumers want everything to be open source is because in their eyes and minds, open source = free software.

It makes me sick to hear things like Microsoft's abusing their monopoly and stealing stuff from other people. Microsoft is a business out there to make money like everyone else. If you can't afford their products then do without it, and if you've got a problem with the way they conduct business then just take a closer look at every other business out there, and you'll realize that Microsoft isn't doing anything different - they're just a whole lot more successful. Everyone always hates number 1, and that makes me sick.

[penguiniator]

" Microsoft Starts Distributing Open-Source Drupal"

"While this doesn't technically make Microsoft a distributor of these open-source "bits," it comes pretty darn close, and it arguably puts Microsoft on the legal hook for this open-source code"

No, it doesn't. Their program is doing the same thing a shortcut on the Windows desktop would, which is provide a link to a file on another site and letting the user choose to click on it, or not. Many similar arrangements exist on the web for downloading and installing software on Windows, such as sites that provide collections of links to install.exe files provided on other sites, which Internet Explorer will happily launch for you upon completing the download. Offering a link to download software does not make Microsoft a distributor.

If it were true that linking to a program archive on an external site obligated the link provider to become a steward of the software linked to, there would be many more successful license infringement suits being filed and a lot less linking going on. Lawyers would be looking around the web for the deepest pocket they could find that links to the software in question and sue their pants off for any violations of the license.

You knew the article title you created was a false statement and published it anyway. What crap.

[emrebilgin]

Ich war neugierig auf ein paar Fragen .. Ich fand sie hier .. Danke

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[emrebilgin]

Ich war neugierig auf ein paar Fragen .. Ich fand sie hier .. Danke

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