Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Microsoft Funds Open Source CodePlex Foundation

By

CodeplexRelations between the open source movement—particularly the communities behind various distributions of Linux—and software giant Microsoft have always been contentious. On one hand, Microsoft claims to be embracing open source development efforts and working to integrate and support open source tools in its own commercial products and applications…on the other hand, for years Microsoft has claimed Linux infringes on oodles of Microsoft patents, and the company has passive-aggressively leaned on organizations and even its own customers not to stand with Linux if—or when—fireworks erupt.

Now, the company has announced it is putting $1 million towards the CodePlex Foundation, a new “completely independent” non-profit intended to facilitate open source code exchange between commercial software developers and open source communities. And the CodePlex Foundation will be run by Sam Ramji, who just stepped down as the lead on Microsoft’s open source platform efforts.

Recommended Videos

The ostensible mission of the CodePlex Foundation is to increase participation in open source projects by commercial software developers. Rather than focusing on a particular project—like Apache or Mozilla—the CodePlex Foundation aims to address a wide spectrum of projects “with the licensing and intellectual property needs of commercial software companies in mind.” The foundation claims one measure of its success will be a growing number of commercial software developers working on open source projects.

The move is being met with some skepticism from the open source community, unsure how the CodePlex Foundation plans to operate or what it brings to the table other open source organizations do not. For the next few months, the CodePlex Foundation will work on answering those questions as well as defining its governance, procedures, and operations—the foundation will also set up a permanent board of directors and executive director.

The move also follows Microsoft’s divestiture of some 22 software patents that are widely regarded as possible candidates for legal action should an intellectual property battle ever erupt between the Linux community and Microsoft. According to Linux Foundation, Microsoft put together the package of patents “relating to open source” with the idea a patent troll would snap them up, and then engage in legal action against Linux and/or other open source efforts—thereby, Microsoft wouldn’t have to blacken its reputation by initiating a legal battle directly. However, the open source-friendly Open Invention Network managed to acquire some of the patents, obviating much of the potential threat. “This deal shows the mechanisms the Linux industry has constructed to defend Linux are working, even though the outcome also shows Microsoft to continue to act antagonistically to its customers,” wrote Linux Foundation President Jim Zemlin.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Geoff Duncan
Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
Sorry, Microsoft — I don’t want Copilot+ reading my DMs yet
Microsoft introducing the Recall feature in Windows 11.

Microsoft is kicking off a new era of PCs -- the Copilot+ era. It's a new category of device designed and built around AI, and the key selling point of a Copilot+ PC is the new Recall feature. I'm not quite on board with it yet, however.

Recall is a collection of several small language models that run on your device all the time. These models track everything you do, from messages and emails you send to where you navigate within Windows 11. And, as the name suggests, Copilot can recall this information whenever you need it, using it as bedrock context for how you interact with your PC.

Read more
Microsoft just kicked off a new era of PCs with Copilot+
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announces updates to the company's Copilot artificial intelligence (AI) tool.

Microsoft is introducing an entirely new category of PCs, and they're all centered around Copilot+. Amid bold claims of AI PCs from industry leaders like Intel, AMD, and Nvidia, Microsoft is kicking off the era of the AI PC with a new set of hardware requirements and software features that allow your PC to go beyond an AI chatbot.

The idea behind Copilot+ isn't to have a few AI features. Instead, the dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) on a Copilot+ PC will run several language models in the background of Windows 11 -- all the time. The models will scan you through everything you do on your PC to provide context when you want to prompt Copilot properly. Microsoft calls the feature Recall and says it's like a "sensor for AI."

Read more
A ‘healthy’ PC means using Bing, according to Microsoft
Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 sitting on a table.

Microsoft hasn't been shy about pushing first-party services and apps in Windows, but this time, it's getting a little ridiculous. As reported by Windows Latest, the Microsoft application PC Manager claims you can "fix" your computer simply by changing Bing to be the default search engine.

The change was spotted when using the Edge browser and having, for example, Google as the default search engine. After you run a health check, one of the suggested changes will be to set Bing as your default search engine. If that's how you want to go, there's a button to make it happen.

Read more