Microsoft is Now a Platinum Sponsor of the Apache Foundation | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft is Now a Platinum Sponsor of the Apache Foundation

apache.org

16 pointspierrefar9 comments

From the port 25 blog (linked in article):

> It is not a move away from IIS as Microsoft’s strategic web server technology. We have invested significantly in refactoring and adding new, state-of-the-art features to IIS, including support for PHP. We will continue to invest in IIS for the long term and are currently under way with development of IIS 8.

> It is a strong endorsement of The Apache Way, and opens a new chapter in our relationship with the ASF. We have worked with Apache POI, Apache Axis2, Jakarta, and other projects in the last year, and we will continue our technical support and interoperability testing work for this open source software.

Nice to see them moving in that direction.

Indeed, also some pretty big news is that GPL is now covered in their Open Specification Promise.

http://blogs.msdn.com/aniyer/archive/2008/07/25/announcing-s...

"Q: I am a developer/distributor/user of software that is licensed under the GPL, does the Open Specification Promise apply to me?

A: Absolutely, yes. The OSP applies to developers, distributors, and users of Covered Implementations without regard to the development model that created such implementations, or the type of copyright licenses under which they are distributed, or the business model of distributors/implementers. The OSP provides the assurance that Microsoft will not assert its Necessary Claims against anyone who make, use, sell, offer for sale, import, or distribute any Covered Implementation under any type of development or distribution model, including the GPL. As stated in the OSP, the only time Microsoft can withdraw its promise against a specific person or company for a specific Covered Specification is if that person or company brings (or voluntarily participates in) a patent infringement lawsuit against Microsoft regarding Microsoft’s implementation of the same Covered Specification. This type of “suspension” clause is common industry practice."

They were also a major sponsor of OSCON, above, e.g., Google and Sun. http://en.oreilly.com/oscon2008/public/content/home

WTF?

Hey. Microsoft is a lot of nasty things but it's not stupid. It doesn't compete needlessly, not always, and it knows a good thing when it sees it.

While MSFT might wage war against Open Source, they recognize it's a deep pool of talent to recruit from.

Now if they could hire away the key Apache developers, they would in a heartbeat. They did it to Borland in the 90's. That's why Ballmer was tossing around chairs, b/c he saw Google using the very same strategy against him.

At the end of the day Money talks!

They did it to Borland in the 90's.

Indeed, and with huge consequences. Borland withered up and died (or the statistical equivalent), and MS got Heijlsberg who went on to make some of the few things they have that don't suck.

If you can't beat them, join them?

keep your friends close, but keep your enemy even closer.

It's a cookbook!

Good for them.

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