Microsoft reverses course, becomes more open to open-source community

When Microsoft Corp. bought Powerset Inc. in July, it acquired more than just search engine technology. It also became the owner of open-source code that was -- and still is -- being contributed to the Apache Software Foundation's Hadoop project.

Having open-source technology in a product was a first for Microsoft, said Robert Duffner, a senior director in the company's platform strategy group. Also in July, Microsoft began providing internally developed code to an open-source project called ADOdb, which produces a database abstraction library for the PHP and Python scripting languages.

Via such moves, the platform strategy unit is pushing the software vendor not only to accept that its products need to interoperate with open-source technology, but also to view the latter as beneficial to its business goals.

That's a far cry from the "us vs. them" stance that Microsoft long took toward open source -- as epitomized by the company's May 2007 claim that open-source technologies were infringing on 235 of its patents.

"It's been quite a while since we've heard much saber rattling," said Jay Lyman, an open-source analyst at The 451 Group. "It's indicative that there is true change going on over there."

The changes aren't complete, though. "There are some groups [where] it's taking longer for the message to filter down," acknowledged Peter Galli, the platform strategy unit's senior open-source community manager.

And Microsoft still thinks that its software is superior and that it costs less to run Windows Server than it does to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Duffner said.

Lyman said it makes sense for Microsoft to differentiate between attacking open-source vendors and criticizing open source as an ideology. The latter, he said, has proved to be a battle that Microsoft can't win.

This version of this article originally appeared in Computerworld's print edition.