O'Reilly .NET DevCenter: Microsoft Plans Shared Source .NET

[ Thanks to Myddrin for this link. ]

An interview with Microsoft Program manager Dave Stutz discusses some of the issues behind .NET, shared source, and Microsoft's preference for FreeBSD over Linux as a target platform for implementing .NET for Unix-like operating systems because of licensing issues.

"Stutz: ...The licensing terms are designed so that people who want to do non-commercial ports to Linux [can do so]. That's well within the intended purpose of the license. We don't feel comfortable with Linux because of the GPL nature of the kernel ...

FreeBSD has traditionally been an operating system that encouraged unencumbered experimentation. ... And that's what we're using it for. We're using it to prove the point that you can actually implement the CLI on Unix. It's been around a long time, people use it commercially. Microsoft uses it commercially, actually. And the academic community is quite familiar with it as well.

John Osborne: So you're favoring FreeBSD over Linux because of the licensing?

Stutz: We have chosen FreeBSD because of licensing issues, yes."

Complete Story

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