Microsoft spin-out floats Azure for open-sourcers
A Microsoft spin-out is trying to tempt open-sourcers to its owner’s cloud with a catalogue of Azure-friendly open code. Microsoft Open Technologies has announced VM Depot, a site it calls: “A community-driven catalog of preconfigured operating systems, applications, and development stacks that can easily be deployed on Windows …
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Suddenly Microsoft wants Open source - when it suits it
Microsoft have called Open Source / Linux "a cancer". They have continually attacked open source and done everything in their power to attack open source and be incompatible with open standards (non-support, bad mouthing, the OOXML debacle in an attempt to defeat ODF, MS "open source" and "Shared Source" licences that are not compatible with non-MS open source code, patent threats against Linux, patent trolling against Android, etc, etc.).
Now, when MS's windows cloud copy of Amazon and Google clouds is going nowhere fast, they want to make friends with the open source community in a hope to getting back into the game.
The problem for Microsoft is, the open source community remember Microsoft's history of attacks on open source. Microsoft went and shit on the community and now want some love (for their own, unpopular closed source Cloud OS).
Re: Suddenly Microsoft wants Open source - when it suits it
The problem for the "Open source community" is that they are represented by people who care more about purism and never forgetting any slight against them, than they are business users who have pragmatic decisions to make about services. You can't always use one OS, so it's good when there is interop between heterogeneous environments.
The "cancer" comment was about ten years ago, IIRC, you don't see them saying thing like that now. You see them releasing drivers, kernel updates, custom built machines, interoperability tools etc. etc.
Re: Suddenly Microsoft wants Open source - when it suits it
@AC - There's nothing wrong with having purist engineering principles. Pragmatic solutions are often quite toxic, look at Win8 with its "pragmatic?" two UI's.
Nonetheless you are incorrect - most OS devs are professoinals working for the likes of IBM, Redhat, and so forth, they're little different from devs that write closed source s/w.
Re: Suddenly Microsoft wants Open source - when it suits it
The problem for the "Open source community" is that they are represented by people who remember Microsoft's previous lock-in attempts and poisoning of code (remember Microsoft Java?) and are waiting for the hidden catch.
Maybe MS have changed; but on previous form, I would only use their cloud for temporary, trivial projects.
Re: Suddenly Microsoft wants Open source - when it suits it
Of course Microsoft wants Open Source when it suits it. Every business wants things that suit them. But this "people who care more about purism" is a lot of rubbish. Supercomputer owners, big companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, the Wall Street, you name it do not care or think of "purism" they use Open Source just because it suits them. You may find ,sort of, "religious" opinions about Open Source, Linux, Apple, Microsoft or what ever, but that is only among individuals.
Business (if it is business) does not give a shit about purism they just use what they know or hope will suit them.
Any opinion about other communities the "Closed source community" the "Free software community" etc.
I am in fact agreeing with you, but this "purism" is rubbish and if I start to forget something I should make an appointment with an medical expert.
Re: Suddenly Microsoft wants Open source - when it suits it
Google also use OSS only when it suits them, to get people on side. What is the story here, you expect a private company to embrace OSS purely for idealistic reasons?
Microsoft has never been friendly with open source. The only reason they are doing this is to try to boost their market share.
Hmm
The only real reason any company buys into, uses, partakes and invests in open soure - is to increase market share. Once they realise it can work for them - they increasingly take to it. Forget the name. Either you are prepared to accept this idea, and then enxtend to MS or you don't. If you don't want people to partake, and invest, and you make the whole thing hostile, then people won't.
Are people complaining about 10 years ago and MS not joining and contributing, or are they complaining that they do and are. Sometimes you won't actually have a difference. Those people just hate MS..
MS can't win in that situation - at least in such people's eyes.
I won't trust anything by MS until it is out of Balmer's hands. And then we'll see... depends on who is running it.
Thus far they've been completely unworthy of trust. People use MS products out of necessity or ignorance.
If we ignore the purist aspects of MS OSS bashing...
I not even confident with Azure for Windows OS Clouds...
why does Microsoft need its own open source foundation
"Microsoft today is spinning up a new 501.c non-profit effort as a forum to support open source community projects. The new effort is called the CodePlex Foundation and it builds on the efforts of Microsoft's Codeplex site" link
My first thoughts on Linux Cloud platforms
"Who would be the best partner for this?" I just don't know why this obvious answer did not leap immediately to mind.
/s
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