Microsoft squeezing its way into FOSS? --------------------------------------
An interesting news article regarding Microsoft's recent 'open source' initiative titled "Codeplex". [Source: VUNET http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2159194/microsoft-launches-open-source] According to VUNET, Microsoft's CodePlex is hoping to attract budding developers. Codeplex has recently been launched as an effort to promote the usage of Microsoft software engineering technology among the development community around the world. During it's beta trial, the CodePlex website received more than a 100,000 visits from a worldwide audience showcasing 12 projects managed by more than 30 developers. Microsoft sees this as a way of offering transparency into Microsoft Technology to the developer community says Jon Rosenberg, director of community source programmes at Microsoft. Secondly he feels that it will add practical experience to the CVs of the developers engaging in the CodePlex community. An insight into the CodePlex activity by Microsoft. Microsoft may be picking up tidbits from the FOSS community regarding collaborative software development and the opportunities that the FOSS community shares. It's a good thing to see that various proprietary software corporations that stood strong in their dominance at one stage are now bending towards the offerings and disruption caused by the FOSS movement, even though they give a feeling of making CVs good and something strong for the developer's career. However, such initiatives will continue to lack the spirit that the FOSS community or movement shares globally. If Microsoft says "Your Potential, Our Passion", the FOSS community says "Your Benefit, Our Spirit", though; the path to realization for the proprietary software corporations is definitely a long journey! Another important consideration is that the CodePlex promotes a significant copyright by Microsoft. While going through its code of conduct section, it states "Microsoft reserves the right to remove at any time, without notice, any sample and/or post to a collaborative service.", so much for the right to share and develop or even privacy. Another interesting topic is that the privacy issues are not relevant to an open community but to that of what Microsoft offers to its general customers on the MSN or Microsoft Websites so it keeps ending up back under copyright or security issues under the Microsoft Corporation. Promoting the Commons through ICT Software Freedom Regards ----------------------- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary - FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat Lahore-54700, Pakistan Cell: 92-333-4661290 Tel: 92-42-5030039 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
