Microsoft depends on Shared Source
CRN.com | at | by Mike
The man at Microsoft responsible for studying the open-source-code movement and figuring out the company's response says Microsoft's own Shared Source Initiative is working out just fine.
Jason Matusow, director of the Shared Source Initiative, said Microsoft would continue to add to the 20 products that it currently makes available for source-code inspection. Matusow was a session speaker Wednesday at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco.
Shared Source is a program that allows Microsoft customers and independent developers to download Microsoft source code, examine it, and copy it for their own use. Academic researchers may go further and tinker with the source code, as open-source-code programmers do. But professional and commercial developers may only look at and use the source code. They can't modify and copy it for distribution or embed it in products without a Microsoft license.