The code relased is the ECMA Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) and C# standards. It is available for both Windows XP and FreeBSD operating systems. It is about a million lines of code.
ECMA is made up of large technology companies including IBM, HP and Intel. This code release is seen as an important step in the standardization of XML web services.
Here's the url of the Press Release :
[biz.yahoo.com...]
That pre-dates the court order which was to make the code available so that the States could use it determine if the IE web browser was separatable form Windows.
It seems to me that some Open Source advocates try to portray Microsoft as not being active in the standards movement. This is just not so and I see this as just another demonstration of their commitment.
For me it is especially interesting since it includes C# code. C# is widely seen as the Java-killer is part of the open standards movement. Sun withdrew Java as an open standard some time ago.
I also note that they are including FreeBSD code, which is a free operating system code but is licensed differently than Linux.
Just try to use that source code for something, though, and I'll bet that it is impossible to port to something besides Windows without throwing out 90% of it.
Microsoft really is behind standards. They want everyone to adopt standards, then win in the marketplace on tools that produce those standards. Oracle and Sun have to either make software compatible with the standards, which allows Microsoft to slip into what were formerly closed shops. Or they don't make software compatible with the standards, in which case Microsoft wins when standards compatible software becomes required.
The code is for Windows and FreeBSD.
This means, that you can probably compile most of it on Linux without any changes. Of course, you still can't use it for anything, because they have put their restrictive licenses on it as they always do. I rate this as a PR stunt without much practical value.
If we disparage everything Microsoft does good or bad, it just make it look like a knee-jerk reaction and that we are closed-minded.
This stinks of a big stunt.
1,000,000 lines. That is a nice round number. (Sounds good in the PR release)
Within the ECMA, this is simply an exchange of technology. The only difference to other such exchanges is that they left away the NDA for once, and let other people have a peek at it. And this difference, which seems to be of no practical value to anyone, must primarily be motivated by its PR effect. The million lines of code may impress some people, but it's not really something that tells us anything about the quality of their move.
Off topic but coulnt let this pass without a quick comment. Our host, one of the biggest, uses FreeBSD. I thought it was popular and expanding. Is this not the case?
