Linux Solutions

In a move that will send mild shockwaves through the Linux community, Microsoft has become a sponsor of the open source Apache Software Foundation (ASF) and has opened up some of its protocols for use by open source software (OSS) developers.

Sam Ramji, director of Microsoft’s Open Source Software Lab, made the announcement at OSCON.

Neither party has given the specifics of the sponsorship deal, it is reportedly around the US$100,00 per year mark, which will help the ASF pay for its administrators and support staff, allowing developers to “focus on writing great software,” noted Ramji.

Perhaps even more important than the added revenue for the ASF is the new Open Specification Promise (OSP) from Microsoft. The company is putting forward a wide range of protocols that were formerly in the Communications Protocol Program under OSP.

“This guarantees their freedom from any patent claims from Microsoft now or in the future, and includes both Microsoft-developed and industry-developed protocols,” Ramji said.

“We have established a clarification to the OSP that guarantees developer rights to build software of any kind and for any purpose using these specifications, including commercial use,” he added.

Ramji was quick to point out that Microsoft is not moving away from Internet Information Services (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 underway with development of IIS 8,” he noted.

“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,” he explained.

The open source licensing models supported by ASF allow for commercial use of code in closed source solutions.

“It’s a good step for Microsoft, and positive news for Apache - though some members disagree,” Stephen O’Grady, an industry analyst for Redmonk said..

“Some feel that this is the continuation of the ASF as a more corporate organization, rather than an agile open source enabler,” he explained.

“Both organizations stand to gain: Microsoft, because of the potential for good will and a better interoperability story, and Apache because of both the money and the explicit endorsement,” O’Grady said.