[Am-info] Microsoft Releases Source Code For Research

[Fred A. Miller]

Microsoft Releases Source Code For Research

Microsoft on Wednesday released more than a million lines of code
to some of its new .Net technologies for academic use, at a time
when top executives are considering disclosure of more source
code to business customers. Under the aegis of its
"shared-source" program, headed by Craig Mundie, senior VP and
chief technical officer, Microsoft made available for download
from its Web site the source code to implementations of its
Common Language Infrastructure run-time environment and C#
programming language under a license that encourages academic
experimentation, but prohibits resale of any code. The released
code runs on Microsoft's Windows XP operating system and the
open-source FreeBSD system, and is aimed at university students
and professors.

Microsoft has long been stingy with its source code--the
line-by-line instructions that make software programs run. The
Unix computing environment, by contrast, grew up in a milieu that
encouraged sharing of source code among academics and commercial
researchers. Unix derivatives, such as the Java programming
language and Linux operating system, are widely used on college
campuses today. Microsoft has also made its code selectively
available for research purposes over the years, and there are
signs that the momentum behind so-called "open-source"
development practices is changing the company's approach to
concealing its code. Last spring, Microsoft launched its
shared-source program, which aims to distribute code for Windows
and its .Net Framework object model for research purposes.

In an interview this week, Mundie emphasized that while Microsoft
Research has participated in traditional academic sharing of
code, and that the company has released more code to customers
and systems integrators for technical support purposes, Microsoft
adamantly opposes open-source licenses that encourage the free
exchange of software. "At this point, we're not looking for
people to do our development work for us," he said. "We're
increasingly convinced that volunteer labor in this type of
process is not going to get you where you want to get."

But Mundie confirmed that Microsoft is "open to deciding" whether
to disclose more of the source code to its products to large
business customers who buy its multiyear Software Assurance
licenses. In an interview earlier this month, president Rick
Belluzzo said the company is "starting to think about" making
Software Assurance agreements--in which customers pay premiums
for steady access to product upgrades--more appealing by
including some source-code access to facilitate system repairs.
As the company seeks to recognize more software license revenue
as annuities, Belluzzo said, "we need to do a better job of
associating value with those bits." - Aaron Ricadela

For more, read
Better Access To Data In Microsoft's Plans
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eGYe0Bce7K0V20BZmf0Al

-- 
Fred A. Miller
Systems Administrator
Cornell Univ. Press Services
fm@cupserv.org, www.cupserv.org
--- SuSE Linux v7.3 Pro---