Pender's Blog by Lee Pender, RCPU Editor

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Microsoft Accidentally Goes Open Source

Microsoft has paid a fair amount of lip service over the years to opening up to open source, while at the same time making patent threats and generally mixing its messages. Well, evidently, Microsoft is more interested in open source than anybody at the company realized.

Apparently, a Windows 7 download utility contains code protected by the open source General Public License version 2, meaning Microsoft can modify the code -- which Redmond says came from a third-party -- but then has to release the modified code to the open source community. Amazingly, that's what Microsoft plans to do.

For more on how this happened and how somebody sniffed it out, check out the Q&A here.

Posted by Lee Pender on November 16, 2009


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