Microsoft's FreeBSD Move Aimed At Next Generation Of Developers

The software giant Wednesday announced plans with partner and former Linux advocate Corel to build a noncommercial, shared-source implementation of its C# programming language and Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) developer tools on FreeBSD.

FreeBSD is an open-source operating system loosely based on Unix that gained popularity in recent years because of its use as the foundation for Apple's Mac OS X operating system and rising use in Japan. Noted for its reliability, security, pre-emptive multitasking and SMP features, FreeBSD powers the Apache Web server and the Web sites of Sony Japan, UUNet and Yahoo.

The implementation of Microsoft's core .Net development tools on FreeBSD and Windows are expected to be published as source code under Microsoft's recently released Shared Source licensing framework. The Microsoft Shared Development Process (SDP), unveiled at Tech Ed 2001, is the company's formal response to the open-source software model favored by Linux backers and a call to arms for its own legion of developers to collaborate with the company--and one another--on the development of XML services and define an extended set of HailStorm services and XML Web services.

Linus Torvalds, the inventor and guradian of the Linux kernel, claims Microsoft's FreeBSD announcement is aimed at causing friction in the open source movement and the C# effort doesn't go far enough.

"I'd guess that somebody at MS said, "Why can't we go back to the good old days when there were tens of different UNIXes, all in-fighting?'" Torvalds told CRN in an e-mail. "I think they are a bit chicken, though. If they had any [courage], they'd have

put something like IE or Office on FreeBSD. C# just isn't sharp enough."

The noncommercial FreeBSD implementation of Microsoft's C#, or Visual C#, and CLI is aimed at academic, research and debugging pursuits only, according to Microsoft.

"This does not mean they're porting .Net to FreeBSD," says Peter O'Kelly, a senior analyst at the Patricia Seybold Group. "This is at the intersection of two things: they're serious about C# being a real standard and making it available to academic and research communities where open source gets the most mileage. That's the right place for it."

One analyst says the move is one way to get its next-generation toolset back into the hands of college students and the next generation of developers.

"Microsoft was losing education. The kids in school mess with Linux now," says Rob Enderle, a vice president at Giga Information Group. "They found a way to capture the next generation of programmers and get them excited with C#."

Other observers see the move as having a two-fold purpose. Not only does it attract would-be developers at universities, but it also diverts the spotlight from IBM, Linux and the open-source software model onto a lesser-known, less threatening open-source alternative--and promotes Microsoft's newly minted, noncommercial shared-source framework for developers. Apple Computer's recent hiring of FreeBSD leader Jordan Hubbard has prompted some to question the open-source future of that operating system, thus making FreeBSD more palatable to Microsoft.

While disputing the notion that FreeBSD is destined to become a proprietary Apple-owned operating system, Giga's Enderle agrees that Microsoft's embracing of FreeBSD serves its competitive interests as well. "Linux is viewed as a competing platform [to Windows] and FreeBSD isn't," says Enderle. "Microsoft is choosing the lesser of two evils."

"I don't think Linux is the target. It's IBM," says Tom Adelstein, president of Bynari, a Dallas-based Linux ISV and IBM solution provider. "Microsoft is very scared because IBM can cut into their market at their weakest point."

One Microsoft development executive denied that characterization, saying the announcement is intended to advance Microsoft's mission to make C# an international Internet standard governed by ECMA and to demonstrate that the FreeBSD licensing model is similar to that of Microsoft's shared-source philosophy.

"Apple's hiring the head of the FreeBSD project no more makes it a dead project than Transmeta hiring the leader of Linux [makes open source Linux a dead project]," says Tony Goodhew, a Microsoft product manager in the developer group. "There is no love lost between FreeBSD and Linux crowds. There is a concept that open source equals Linux, and that's no more true than open source equals Unix. We're doing FreeBSD because it has traditionally supported unencumbered experimentation and has a licensing method that is compatible with the shared source philosophy."

And experimentation it is. Executives acknowledge Microsoft has not yet published any commercial licensing guidelines for its shared-source model and it's not clear when that will be addressed. "The shared-source philosophy certainly includes commercial software, but the shared-source implementation of the CLI is intended for noncommercial use," says David Stutz, Microsoft's Group Program Manager for the Shared Source CLI. "We are looking for feedback but have not announced anything on this topic."

For the time being, Microsoft's Common Language Run-Time (CLR) is also expected to support non-Microsoft languages, but not Linux out of the box, sources say. Several observers say third-party ISVs will develop Linux bridges to the CLR.