Morning Reboot: MS Open Source
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Microsoft releases open-source plug-ins for Office 2007 today, and Viacom wants its content off YouTube. Bill Gates tangles with Romania on piracy and Digg no longer lists top users. In Monkey Bites.
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Blog: Microsoft wants to pick and choose which open-source licenses it will respect.  Nope, says the Free Software Foundation.
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Stop milking same old cow Advice from Microsoft on designing useful and uncomplicated software? Now, there's a novel idea.â¦
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Elizabeth Smith has a new post to her blog today covering some of the fun she's been having with compiling things like Gtk+ and PHP-Gtk2.   So I've been using microsoft visual studio (actually it's Visual C++ Express, but uses the same stuff behind the scenes) to work on getting things compiled on windows. PHP-Gtk2 allows for some nifty extensions, well at least on linux. So I've been working to get versions of libglade, scintilla, gtksourceview and mozembed working on windows. It's a long, slow process. Here's the deal so far.   She talks about her current situation (what's compiling and what's not) and the software that she's trying to get up and running. She also mentions a problem she's been having with an error message talking about "unresolved external symbols" she'll need to track down (or get some help on - anyone out there seen it?)
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Open source is wonderful. Everything is so open, warts and all. Roshan Naik complains about the state of PHP:
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Windows update doesn't play well with all applications, even Redmond's. Also: CNET Reviews on security work still to be done.
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Red hat revolution The Cuban government has found another way to thumb its nose at the US, its bullyboy neighbour - opt for open source and throw its Microsoft software in the dustbin.â¦
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Readers find fault with Wired News' review of Microsoft's new operating system. Plus: Links to our most popular blogs.
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Ziff Davis - Linux and open source are at the heart of today's computing technology. Deal with it.
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InfoWorld - Enterprises are opening up to open source alternatives to commercial software, panelists said at the SDForum conference &#8220;Open Source Entering the Mainstream,&#8221; held in Santa Clara, Calif., last week.
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The Story: What?s in a name? Back in the days of the Gingrich revolution, the nastiest label you could pin on a politician was ?liberal.? And now that open source has become an essential technology, the quickest way to get a rise out of an open source executive (and to get flamed on dozens of blogs) is to say his or her company is ?commercial.?[ Slideshow: 2007's top underreported tech stories ]                                                    No matter what you call them, open source companies have been steadily integrating parts of the hated commercial software subscription model into their business. First it was support, and now it is software access. Say it ain?t so, Linus.MySQL, for example, will charge users of its enterprise edition to use the code, not just for support as has been the traditional open source business model. ?We are looking for ways to extend our offerings in a way that can be monetized,? bluntly says Kaj Arno, the company?s VP for community.Chander Kant, founder of the open source storage software company Zmanda, is likewise frank about the need to drive revenue. Speaking of the open source community as a whole, he says, ?We are not a charity. We need to monetize.?Recognizing that charging to use open source software flies in the face of the original open source premise of freely sharable code open to everyone, Arno is quick to note that the paid version of Workbench has code and features not found in the free version ? and that the free version ?is not crippled.? Arno calls the move an experiment, and acknowledges that MySQL needs to move carefully to avoid upsetting the often quick-tempered open source community.Is this a trend? Red Monk analyst Stephen O?Grady says it is: ?Ultimately when you look at a high-profile firm like MySQL embracing it, it?s difficult to conclude anything else.?InfoWorld blogger (and IBM employee) Savio Rodrigues notes another example. In a recent blog post, he looked at changes to JBoss since it was purchased by Red Hat Software and concluded: ?The Fedora/JBoss subscription is just like the software subscription business model that commercial software vendors have been using for decades.?Does that mean a company that adopts the usage-based pricing model isn?t really open-source? That?s an interesting point, since as Zmanda?s Kant acknowledges, ?the litmus test of open source is control of the code.? Open source software delivered through appliances keeps the access ? and thus control ? away from users, he notes. But code binaries distributed as software remain open to their users ? for now, at least.The Bottom Line: Have MySQL and Red Hat run away from the principles of open source? Who cares. The real point is that the open source business model is evolving away from the ?free? model and toward an alternative development approach for commercial software. If you adopted open source due to its cost, you may not save as much as you thought. If you adopted open source for the access to source code or the community-supported development approach that is supposed to result in better software, it?s not yet clear if the greater commercialization will enhance those aspects or drive away the true believers and make open source no different than the old-fashioned commercial offerings.Complete list of 2007 underreported stories: 1.? Java is becoming the new Cobol 2.? Sun Microsystems is back in the game 3.? Hackers take aim at Mac OS X 4.? There are some threats you can worry less about 5.? Companies may have found a way around H-1B visa limits 6.? Open source?s new commercial strategy 7.? End-to-end Ethernet finally arrives 8.? Blade servers arrive for the masses 9.? BI is dead; long live BI 10. Balance of power shifts to software buyers
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Open source is not always the best software.  When it's not, use something else.  Is this complicated?
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Earlier than scheduled, Microsoft Corp. has gone public with its announcement of its third open-source code contribution to SourceForge.
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MySQL developers turn to an unlikely source for database tool: Microsoft. Patch readies Linux for cell phones, DVD players. Also: SGI visualizes Linux.
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Are MyDoom offshoots an attempt to throw Microsoft off-balance?
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Is open source software better than you think? Comment I got some flack recently for daring to suggest (or appearing to) that open source software (OSS) should be "fit for purpose" (here).â¦
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Microsoft is launching free software to make it easier for developers to create software compatible with Windows Server 2008.