oscon: day 2 - microsoft and open source announcements

at oscon this morning, microsoft unveiled a new web site outlining positions on open source strategy.  the goal is to provide transparency into microsoft's perspective on OSS and a place where evidence and information can be shared.

you can visit the new site here: Open Source at Microsoft.

you might ask, 'what about port25, isn't that what it was supposed to be?' and you'd have a valid question.  port25 is the site for the open source software lab at microsoft.  it will continue to be a source for technical information with the oss technical community versus anything outlining an oss strategy.

so what else is microsoft doing in oss land?

microsoft partnered with SpikeSource in an agreement to certify all the SpikeIgnited solutions on the Windows platform.

what else?  how about microsoft's intention to submit the microsoft shared source licenses to the OSI for approval?  more details will come as the licenses are submitted to the process.  personally i think this is great.  the OSI process is a very open and public process where the licenses are vetted/commented on in open forum with the OSI.  you can read about the shared source licenses here.  this is a good thing for microsoft and the open source community.  i love the microsoft permissive license (Ms-PL) and what it provides for developers as well as certain protection it provides...it's been described as BSD-like, and is pretty good and simple, easy to understand.

so that's what is going on in microsoft open source land...we're looking forward for more to come!  today john lam will be demonstrating and talking about ironruby and the dynamic language runtime at oscon...looking forward to that one!