Comments on: Microsoft And British Library Develop Open Source Research Tool

By: Prabhu

Prabhu — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:28:36 +0000

I can write a open source software that runs only on windows. Now Windows is closed source. But my software isn’t!

Now people can argue that someone can take the source and port it to any os. But I can write absolute crap code that will make any such porting incredibly difficult.

I am confused!

By: Chila

Chila — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:04:14 +0000

This action is stupid. Codeplex should not have been the way to go.

By: Chris Puttick

Chris Puttick — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:10:03 +0000

Only someone who hadn’t thought it through would call this project open source. Not because of where it is hosted, nor because Microsoft were involved; neither of those aspects are necessary indicators of “non-openness”.

The software requires Sharepoint, which is about as closed as it gets. This is a simple, unequivocal and unsubtle attempt to embed Sharepoint dependency into the academic sector, and the Microsoft stack that goes with it, and the BL are incredibly naive for not seeing this.