http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...oundation.html

Today at the OSCON open source software convention, the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) got an unexpected new sponsor: Microsoft. The Redmond software giant, which will contribute $100,000 annually to the ASF, joins Google and Yahoo as a platinum sponsor of Apache development.

The ASF is a nonprofit group that exerts loose organizational guidance role over a sprawling ecosystem of autonomously managed software projects, including the Apache web server and a host of libraries, frameworks, toolkits, and programs. The culture of the ASF is built upon what they call the "Apache Way," a philosophy of consensus-based collaborative stewardship and volunteerism.

I spoke with Apache Software Foundation (ASF) president Justin Erenkrantz, who views Microsoft's sponsorship of Apache as a step forward for interoperability. He believes that this move is based on a legitimate desire by Microsoft to foster collaborative development of Apache technologies that implement Microsoft standards. In particular, he points out an ASF project called Apache POI which offers native Java libraries for reading and writing Microsoft Office file formats.

I asked him if this could possibly be the beginning of a broader initiative by Microsoft to increase Apache compatibility with .NET web development technologies, but he says it's still too early to guess Microsoft's future plans for Apache participation. He says that the Apache community, like the license it uses, tends to be pragmatic and naturally receptive to corporate involvement. He doesn't anticipate a confrontational response from the developers working on individual Apache projects because they are already accustomed to positive collaboration with the numerous companies that participate in Apache development. The response of the broader open source software community, however, is harder to predict.

Microsoft's interest in funding Apache projects is likely driven by consumer demand for interoperability. A growing number of companies are deploying Apache-based technologies on top of Windows servers. Microsoft's understanding of enterprise open source adoption is evolving and the company has slowly been taking steps to foster its own community of Windows-based open source software developers.

Erenkrantz told me that Microsoft has been moving in this direction for quite some time. The company recently invited several Apache contributors to visit its Redmond headquarters for informal interoperability talks. Microsoft's recognition of the role that open source software will play in enterprise infrastructure comes directly from the top, he says, and isn't just confined to rogue elements within the company.

Microsoft's history of antagonism to and mixed messages on open source software will likely lead some critics to see the move as a potential trap. Prudence and scrutiny are certainly justifiable wherever Microsoft is involved, but it seems unlikely that there is any possible mischief in this arrangement; the governance model of the ASF just doesn't leave room for abuse.

It isn't clear yet what level of involvement Microsoft will choose to have, but any level of involvement represents strong validation of the Apache ecosystem and the open source software model. This will hopefully be the start of a mutually beneficial arrangement for Microsoft and the Apache community.

Update: Microsoft's Sam Ramji comments on the new partnership with the ASF and some other open source announcements in a blog entry
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/25/microsoft_gpl/

OSCON After years of hostility towards Free Software Foundation (FSF) licensing (here and here) Microsoft has announced the first in a series of PHP patches - and it's using an FSF license.

Microsoft told The Reg it's submitted a patch to the community for the ADOdb database abstraction library for PHP to add support for the PHP SQL Driver developed with PHP shop Zend Technologies. The patch is under the FSF's Lesser GPL (LGPL).

And, in a further move towards greater support of open source, Microsoft is becoming a platinum member of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), paying $100,000 annual membership. The move follows work between the two to support the Office Open XML file formats in Apache's POI project.

That work has also led to a "clarification" of Microsoft's Open Specification Promise to re-assure POI developers that subsets and defects of the work are also covered by OSP. Under OSP Microsoft has agreed not to assert claims against implementations of certain of its technologies.

Microsoft is also expanding OSP by adding to the list more than 100 protocols for interoperability between its Windows Server and the Windows client.

Until now, the protocols had been available under the Microsoft Communications Protocol Program (MCPP) that was ordered as part of Microsoft's anti-trust settlement with the US Department of Justice. Microsoft, though, has repeatedly landed in hot water on MCPP for failing to make the pricing and terms clear to licensees.

Sam Ramji, senior director of Microsoft platform strategy, told The Reg Microsoft is moving from participating in open source to becoming a contributor.

Ramji, who made the announcements at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) Friday, promised "a lot more" PHP patches in the coming months now Microsoft had established processes he said clarified how employees can contribute to open source.

He did not provide details of the new policy, but El Reg reported reported on Microsoft's new guidelines last month.

It would seem employees can contribute to projects but open source code cannot be used in Microsoft's products, to protect the company from unwanted licenses and IP claims. The PHP SQL Driver does not ship with Microsoft software and must be downloaded.

Microsoft's new love for FSF licensing and PHP is not exactly unselfserving. The decision to work on PHP fits with the overall strategy of improving the language's interoperability with Windows and stemming the loss of PHP application deployments to Linux. LGPL allows code to be used with proprietary programs - such as SQL Server - unlike its GPL cousin.

Also, while Ramji stressed support for ASF did not represent a move away on the web server from IIS, it is a recognition of the rival Apache HTTP Web Server's enduring number-one status on the web and Microsoft's desire to have it run on Windows instead of Linux servers.

Also, in a measure of how far it's willing to contribute, Microsoft does not appear ready to have its engineers actually participate in open source groups, such as Eclipse.

"Putting members in to Eclipse may or may not happen," Ramji said. He noted, though, Microsoft is keeping an eye on what it can do to help ASF's Jakarta Project.