XML-BLOG

Microsoft to Release Open-Source Version of Windows?

OK, maybe that idea is a bit premature, but I really believe it's inevitable! Yesterday, the news that Microsoft had released the Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset as open source on SourceForge made its way around the blogosphere. It was inevitable that this would happen given the enormous impact open source software has had in the Windows world. Open source has long been the domain of *nix geeks, but since the advent of the .NET Framework, which makes developing software so ridiculously easy, I've noticed an explosion in the amount of openware targeted at the Microsoft platform. Who's with me? A few years ago no one would have predicted a book like .

The fact is the open-source movement is too big to ignore. After reading countless blog posts about nAnt and nDoc, I finally caved and took the time to set up these tools at work. To be honest, I was quite content with a little scripting and some batch files. But 10 minutes with nAnt makes you fall in love with its power and simplicity. The one thing the open-source movement is really lacking is excellent documentation. Sure, the nAnt website has a task reference, but to a newcomer, most of these tasks are underspecified without so much as a lowly sample. That wouldn't be as bad if the xml conventions for tasks were documented like, tasks are always elements and all properties are attributes, etc. Again, if you spend enough time with it, you'll figure it out but I want to spend my time doing my work, not learning the syntax of a tool's configuration file. The nantcontrib project, another remarkably stable piece of openware, doesn't even tell you how to get it working with nant in its help pages (build it and drop the assemblies in the nant bin folder). Of course, it's tempting to let it slide -- after all -- these tools are FREE!

So what will become of Jumbo or Download.com in the long run? A better question: How long do you think it'll be before Microsoft has a FREE operating system available for download? I predict we'll see a Microsoft Windows Community Edition before the decade is out. Can you think of a better marketing vehicle? Sure, maybe I'm nuts, but I never thought I'd see something like the ASP.NET WebMatrix available as a free download or a book from Microsoft Press devoted in a large part to a piece of openware like nunit.

Posted by Christian at April 6, 2004 09:08 AM |