5861481
submission
ruphus13 writes:
Microsoft Open Source Czar, Sam Ramji, is leaving the company and heading back to the valley to work with a Cloud Computing startup. He has joined the CodePlex Foundation as their 'interim' chair, and continues to be very involved in the world of OSS, but let's hope he is not leaving because Microsoft is doing an about-face on its purported love for Open Source, and the initiatives Ramji championed. From the article, "Ramji, whose tenure at Microsoft has been widely followed by and influential toward the open source community, has confirmed that he is leaving the company at the end of September, for a new position in Silicon Valley. He remains the current Interim President of the CodePlex Foundation, though, and told us more about his plans for it and the foundation's future. "I will be leaving Microsoft at the end of September for a similar position at a cloud infrastructure startup in Silicon Valley," Ramji said. He started with Microsoft in early 2008, and has been behind many of the company's open source-related initiatives since then. As Interim President of the CodePlex Foundation, Ramji stresses that the foundation, Microsoft itself, and the CodePlex hosting site are three different, though related things. The initial funding for the foundation comes from Microsoft, for the foundation's first year.""
5859115
submission
dp619 writes:
Microsoft's developers were missing in action after the company donated GPL-licensed drivers to the Linux kernel community in July, leaving significant work to the Linux community, according to Linux driver project lead and Novell fellow Greg Kroah-Hartman. The company rekindled its involvement after Kroah-Hartman published a status report this week. Kroah-Hartman said that other companies were also laggards in Linux development, and that Microsoft's lack of involvement was nothing out of the ordinary.
5832381
submission
dp619 writes:
Large segments of the U.S. population are not considering careers in IT, shaping a shortage in qualified developers. Few students are enrolling in computer science courses, and a dwindling number of those are women and minorities, government experts say.
5343773
submission
dp619 writes:
Microsoft violated the General Public License v2 (GPLv2) when it distributed its Hyper-V Linux Integration Components without providing source code, says the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC).
5304081
submission
dp619 writes:
Microsoft's announcement that it had contributed drivers to Linux caused a kerfuffle with the open source community earlier this week after it was alleged that Microsoft only did so after being informed that it was in violation of the General Public License (GPL). Today, Microsoft's Sam Ramji, senior director of platform strategy, told SD Times that the company had preexisting plans to use GPL for the drivers, but did not address the charge that Microsoft had violated the GPL.
5275977
submission
dp619 writes:
Microsoft's contribution of GPL-licensed drivers to the Linux kernel community signals that it is open to participate in open-source projects, regardless of the license, said Sam Ramji, Microsoft's senior director of platform strategy.
However grand Microsoft's intentions may be, an analyst views it less as altruism than as a targeted move by Microsoft to further its virtualization strategy
5133917
submission
dp619 writes:
Mono, a framework based on Microsoft technology, has become more popular for Linux desktop applications than Java, but recent changes could strengthen Java's hand, SD Times is reporting. The story also touches on the failure of Linux distros to keep pace with Eclipse.
4798539
submission
dp619 writes:
SD Times is reporting that Micro Focus' bid to acquire Borland Software is not a done deal. Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reveal that a counter proposal could be in the works, and in a separate action, a law firm is soliciting disaffected shareholders for a class action against the company's board of directors.
3879449
submission
dp619 writes:
Don't judge a developer by his or her certifications. Cheaters are coordinated, and the answers to exams are easily located on the Web. Would-be cheaters share word-for-word certification test questions and advise others on how to dodge company enforcers in Web forums.
SD Times reports that Web sites, including certcollection.org, examcollection.com and (until recently) sadikhov.com, host forums where members share advice, experience, and even actual word-for-word Microsoft certification test questions known in the cheating community as "MS brain dumps."
3829955
submission
dp619 writes:
As part of its ongoing attempt to secure the Windows ecosystem, Microsoft is releasing an automation tool that it says will help testers determine the uniqueness of crashes and drill down into whatever security implications might exist.
3731963
submission
dp619 writes:
Capped per-unit royalties make FAT licensing agreements permissible under the GPL, and SD Times has found that Microsoft's public license policy caps royalties at $250k. If the royalties are capped — as they seem to be — TomTom should be able to license FAT without violating the GPL. And if that is the case.... TomTom needs some serious explaining to do as to why they aren't licensing FAT. That said, Microsoft still needs to explain why it just cannot say that folks won't violate the GPL if they license FAT under its terms.
3460209
submission
dp619 writes:
SD Time's David Worthington blogged that a flaw in how Microsoft Windows Server 2008 calculates the time remaining until it must be activated could enable users to potentially run the server for years before activation. The defect is a consequence of Microsoft failing to assess its virtualization strategy, an analyst said.
3241109
submission
dp619 writes:
Microsoft acknowledges that the GNU General Public License is an important license, but the company believes that it is too challenging to work with. That's the view of Sam Ramji, Microsoft's senior director of platform strategy. Explaining why Microsoft believes that the GPL presents challenges, Ramji said, "I am personally fairly pragmatic, so I value things working well together--heterogeneous systems, hybrid licensing, multiple development models. I think the GPL is designed toward exclusivity rather than heterogeneity. That produces challenges in how we approach it."
3197375
submission
dp619 writes:
The Eclipse Foundation is looking for opportunities to work more closely with Microsoft, says Mike Milinkovich, its executive director. He said that Eclipse is already working with Microsoft on a Silverlight project and would like to work with other Microsoft product groups in the company's developer and connected systems divisions. Meanwhile, at least one observer is skeptical about whether a close Microsoft-Eclipse partnership would truly be a win-win scenario.
