Back in 2000, rapper Eminem released a parody song titled, "The Real Slim Shady". At the time it was meant to be a parody of manufactured pop songs that were prevalent in the pop music world. The irony was that most listeners and fans missed the song's true intent and heralded its novelty. Today, Scott Guthrie announced with the release of .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 Microsoft will release the .NET Framework source code under the Microsoft Reference License.
In Scott Guthrie's own words:
We'll begin by offering the source code (with source file comments included) for the .NET Base Class Libraries (System, System.IO, System.Collections, System.Configuration, System.Threading, System.Net, System.Security, System.Runtime, System.Text, etc), ADO.NET (System.Data), ASP.NET (System.Web), Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms), and WPF (System.Windows). We'll then be adding more packages next year.
Developers will be able to download the source libraries as a standalone install or can have Visual Studio 2008 download the libraries dynamically as needed. An advantage to using the dynamic download will allow Visual Studio to match source files with the particular version of the .NET library a developer has installed on their machine.
On the reasoning behind this move Scott elaborates:
Having source code access and debugger integration of the .NET Framework libraries is going to be really valuable for .NET developers. Being able to step through and review the source should provide much better insight into how the .NET Framework libraries are implemented, and in turn enable developers to build better applications and make even better use of them.
In a recent eWeek article, Peter Galli postulates that Open Source is the largest disrupter the software industry has ever seen. To base his opinion he begins by quoting large numbers from Gartner.
- Open Source software captured a 13 percent share of the $92.7 billion software market in 2006.
- Open Source should account for 27 percent of the market in 2011 when revenue is expected to be $169.2 billion.
How will this happen? He goes on to quote Gartner's Laurie Wurster:
Open-source software is going to erode proprietary sales revenue by offering less-expensive or free alternatives, expanding the total market potential by meeting the demands of SMBs for affordable solutions, and creating a new business model for established and emerging service providers to provide selection, customization and management services for open-source solutions
How will the .NET and Open Source communities respond to Microsoft's announcement? Is this an evolutionary step or a revolutionary act within the Software Industry?