Microsoft and Open Source: Frost Sightings in Hell

“Bill Hilf, Microsoft General Manager of Platform Strategy,
announced two things last week at the O’Reilly Open Source
Conference in Portland. First Microsoft will be taking two of its
‘Shared Source’ branded licenses to the Open Source Initiative for
approval as full fledged ‘open source’ licenses. Second, they have
built a web site to act as the gateway to Microsoft thinking on
open source software.

“I’m fairly ambivalent on the license announcement. Does the
world really need two more vanity licenses? (No) Isn’t Microsoft
sort of late to the party? (Yes) Does it really matter if the OSI
approves the licenses when they clearly meet the OSI open source
definition? (No) As a global player will Microsoft update the
licenses away from U.S. copyright language before submission,
borrowing from the lessons learned in the free software world? (One
could hope, but probably not. The legal team is too
fearful…)”

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