Open-Source backers fear Windows Longhorn
MS-Watch | at | by Mike
The open-source development community is looking to head off Microsoft Longhorn before it escapes the Redmond corral.
According to the minutes posted to the Web from an April 21 meeting involving members of the Gnome Foundation and the Mozilla Foundation teams, Longhorn's Avalon and XAML technologies appear to be the most potentially worrisome for the open-source community.
Avalon and XAML will be formidable competitors, acknowledged Miguel de Icaza, one of the founders of Ximian and now chief technology officer for the Novell Ximian Services business unit.
But Avalon isn't the open-source movement's only challenge. The other key pillars of Longhorn-the Indigo communications subsystem and the WinFS file system-also are looming. And the open-source community is working through some strategies with how best to deal with those elements, from a competitive standpoint, as well.