Microsoft's CodePlex: Just What Are Your Intentions Toward My Software?
The move comes as a surprise given that Microsoft has long had a rocky relationship with the open source world. Just this week published reports said Microsoft had sent electronics retailer Best Buy materials that sales staff could use to discredit Linux and convince customers that Windows is a safer bet.
Microsoft named Sam Ramji, a senior director of platform strategy, as interim CodePlex president and a number of Microsoft employees as the organization's interim board of directors. Ramji has been Microsoft's point man on its Linux and open source strategy. The organization said it is searching for a permanent executive director.
The CodePlex Web site described the foundation's goal as encouraging commercial software vendors to participate in developing open-source software.
"We believe that commercial software companies and the developers that work for them under-participate in open source projects," according to a FAQ on the CodePlex site. "Some of the reasons are cultural, some have to do with differing software development methodologies, and some have to do with differing views about intellectual property. In general, we are going to work to close these gaps. Specifically we aim to work with particular projects that can serve as best practice exemplars of how commercial software companies and open source communities can effectively collaborate."
The FAQ also accentuates the positive when it comes to Microsoft's history with open-source communities.
"Microsoft has an evolving engagement with open source, as demonstrated by its sponsorship of the Apache Software Foundation, contributions to the PHP Community, participation in Apache projects including the Hadoop project and the Qpid project, and participation in various community events such as OSCON, EclipseCon, PyCon, and the Moodle Conference," the FAQ states. "As an additional proof point of Microsoft's understanding that they needed to be more involved, at OSCON 2009 in July, Microsoft contributed 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux kernel. The Codeplex Foundation is another step in this evolution."
But questions remain about just how CodePlex will work. The Web site says the foundation will "work with particular projects that can serve as best practice exemplars of how commercial software companies and open source communities can effectively collaborate." But it also says it has "no pre-suppositions about particular projects, platforms, or open source licenses."
One of the organization's first tasks is to draft a charter that more clearly spells out its goals.
The foundation faces a long haul in overcoming skepticism about its intentions, given its Microsoft backing. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once famously referred to Linux as "a cancer" in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. And at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in July, chief operating officer Kevin Turner listed Linux, the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser and the OpenOffice personal productivity applications among the technologies Microsoft resellers should target as competitors.