Microsoft's OSI open-source offer (and Nasha... hic!)

Rabbits, white rabbits on Wednesday's IT Blogwatch: in which Microsoft "embraces" open source licensing. Not to mention how NASA discovered those naughty drunken astronauts...

Eric Lai tugs at the kimono:

The head of the open-source group that will decide whether to certify Microsoft Corp.'s "shared source" software licenses as open-source licenses said that more than half of Redmond's licenses appear to automatically fail the group's rules. Michael Tiemann, president of the non-profit Open Source Initiative, said that provisions in three out of five of Microsoft's shared-source licenses that restrict source code to running only on the Windows operating system would contravene a fundamental tenet of open-source licenses as laid out by the OSI.
...
Last Thursday, Microsoft announced its plans to submit its shared-source licenses to the 9-year-old OSI for approval ... Tiemann, who is also CTO of Linux distributor and Microsoft rival Red Hat Inc., said the OSI is not singling out Microsoft ... By his count, the OSI has rejected "two dozen" or so license applications for language that restricted the use or redistribution of software and its source code, even when the restrictions were written with what Tiemann called "moral" intent.
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The best-known open-source licenses approved by the OSI include the General Public License (GPL) ... as well as the Mozilla Public License ... Microsoft's Community License was actually submitted to the OSI for approval in December 2005 -- though by a third-party, not by Redmond itself. The license was rejected at that time. [more]

Bill Thompson adds:

Microsoft has stirred up debate in the open source community by announcing that it will be submitting two licenses to the Open Source Initiative for approval. Like the steps to sainthood, the process of having a license recognised can be long and hard, but fortunately it does not require proof of miraculous intervention, only conformity with the open source standards laid out by the OSI.
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Of course Microsoft is not endorsing the larger and more challenging free software philosophy of Richard Stallman, whose GNU General Public License (GPL) places more stringent conditions on the software it covers than they could ever accept. As Stallman puts it, ‘open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement. For the free software movement, free software is an ethical imperative, because only free software respects the users’ freedom’.

And Microsoft is not proposing to give away its software or assign the copyright to Stallman’s Free Software Foundation for the benefit of all, only to license it under terms that will allow others to see and modify the source code and distribute it freely.

But even so this is an interesting move. [more]

Here's the horse's mouth, Jon Rosenberg:

As Director of Source Programs at Microsoft I can attest to the value of keeping up with your own growth. We started on a journey, over three years ago, with the release of Windows Installer XML on SourceForge. At the time, the project required the approval of our Group Vice President and a herd of lawyers. The reactions of our colleagues were mixed, although as far as we know, none of our kids were beaten up at school as a result of what we were doing. Today, Microsoft has published 175 projects on CodePlex, we have written a pair of open licenses that are under a page in length and over the 500-project mark in adoption as others in the community have decided to use them. I also run a training class that teaches people around the company how to engage in open source projects and make them successful. The volume of projects over the past year has forced us to develop processes for approving and publishing projects that are easy to understand and administer.
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Today, we reached another milestone with the decision to submit our open licenses to the OSI approval process, which, if the licenses are approved, should give the community additional confidence that the code we’re sharing is truly Open Source.  I believe that the same voices that have been calling for Microsoft products to better interoperate with open source products would voice their approval should the Open Source Initiative itself open up to more of the IT industry.
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I look forward to the submission process and welcome feedback from the community as we continue to grow together. [more]

Pamela Jones is worried:

Uh Oh. Another Smooth Move from Microsoft ... What nerve Microsoft has ... a license that restricts use to only the Windows operating system. Why would OSI even consider that? Have we lost our minds? At least two years ago, folks began noticing the erosion of the meaning of "Open Source" by Microsoft. It moves like a glacier, but while it may be slow, it's hard to be in a glacier's path and win ... I hope OSI has the vision to see what needs to happen next.
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Let me please clarify something for [OSI]. Most of us do not want Microsoft to participate. I would like to personally barricade Microsoft out, until it alters its negative, rapacious and hostile behavior toward the GPL and FOSS. And so should you ... I wouldn't pretend the company isn't what it is, because it is what it is. This is starting to feel like Wonderland, where Alice finds that up is down and large is small and nothing is the same or logical.
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I hope you are taking notes, everyone, because there is a line being drawn in the sand, and everyone will have to make a decision, one way or another ... Microsoft is going to pack the OSI membership and then get what it likes ... Remember Massachusetts? What it tried to do to Peter Quinn? If Microsoft does to OSI what it's been doing to technical committees voting on OOXML ... "consensus" is just another word for taking over by packing the numbers. [more]

Abhijit Nadgouda thinks:

It feels as if Microsoft is still not talking to the open source individuals. It is addressing the partners and corporations, not to encourage open source, but to fight the other corporations in open source. I think the open source world can thrive in the Microsoft world, especially because of .NET and Mono. But Microsoft has to acknowledge and encourage participation. Which I do not think seems to be motive of Microsoft’s open source site. [more]

Lora Bentley has the edge:

Don’t count your chickens just yet. If the licenses win OSI approval, Microsoft wants the open source organization to make some structural changes ... I’m not surprised that Microsoft is looking for quid pro quo. It’s a business, after all. What remains to be seen is how the OSI will receive Redmond’s requests. [more]

Roy Schestowitz is, "Getting a little fed up":

I am not alone in assuming that Bill Hilf, along with the division that he manages, has resorted to nothing more than distortion, extortion, embrace-and-destroy strategies and — shall I say — corporate terrorism ... There is reason to suspect that a lot of Microsoft’s recent anti-Linux strategy came from this man, who apparently replaced and inherited the place of Martin Taylor. Martin quit Microsoft last year, having spearheaded the anti-Linux propaganda (”Get the Facts” and all the rest). [more]

Michael Pietroforte offers freundlichen Grüßen:

The message to all Open Source advocates is clear: We are your friends, not your foes. However, I doubt that you can convince Open Source geeks with such a site.
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The first [PDF] file is about Microsoft’s relation to the Mozilla project. I really had to laugh after skimming over it. The document has four pages. The last page is only about Copyright issues concerning the text in the first three pages. This is really the joke of the month. [more]

Buffer overflow:

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Previously in IT Blogwatch

• Grub-by open source searching (and weirdest mating ritual)
• And so the iPhone class-action action begins (and recut trailers)
• Tarjay and Blu-ray: ixnay on the ormatfay arway (and erroray)
• 365 Main's mains power outage outrage (and popcorn)
• Intel opens the threading kimono (and who?)
• Older posts

And finally... How NASA discovered drunken astronauts [warning: some below-the-fold content may not be safe for work]

Richi Jennings is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk.