“The realms of Microsoft and open source software just got a
little closer.
Microsoft has hired ActiveState Tool Corporation to beef up the
Windows features of the Perl programming language, an open-source
technology. …ActiveState’s goal isn’t to help Microsoft make Perl
its own, but rather to make Perl work better on machines running
the Microsoft Windows operating system…”
“The announcement provoked accusations at the Slashdot
discussion Web site that Microsoft was trying to ’embrace and
extend’ Perl–in other words, add proprietary features to the
Windows version of Perl that would make it incompatible with
non-Windows versions.”
“There will be one element of the ActiveState work that isn’t
open source, though, namely the incorporation of Microsoft’s new
installation routine for Windows NT, called Microsoft
Install…”