Open Source Props For Microsoft?

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is normally not on the list of companies likely to say anything positive about Microsoft.

Yet that’s exactly what happened yesterday, as the Free Software Foundation’s European branch (FSFE) congratulated Microsoft for its new shared source licenses.

Microsoft’s Shared Source Initiative now only offers three primary licenses, which is down from over 10.

The move is designed to simplify the licenses under which developers can use Shared Source Initiative technology. The reduction in licenses also stands out considering because the open source community has been hotly debating a reduction in open source licenses, which it has been unable to achieve.

The FSF is the home of the GNU-GPL, which is the defining license of the Free and Open Source Software movements and is the license under which the Linux kernel is developed. The FSF is currently working on version three of the GPL.

”Since we so rarely have an opportunity to say something positive about Microsoft, let me begin by congratulating them,” Georg Greve, president of the FSFE, said in a statement.

According the FSFE, two of the new shared source licenses may well meet the requirements of the Free Software Definition. It warns, however, that its evaluation was only preliminary and that the other licenses offered by Microsoft are still clearly proprietary ”non-free” licenses.

The Free Software Definition is the measure of four freedoms against which licenses are evaluated by the FSF to determine if there are indeed Free Software Licenses.

This article was first published on internetnews.com. To read the full article, click here.

RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS

• Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Greater Equality

  FEATURE |  By James Maguire,
  December 16, 2020

• AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  December 11, 2020

• Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  December 04, 2020

• Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  November 18, 2020

• Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA

  FEATURE |  By Guest Author,
  November 10, 2020

• Top 10 AIOps Companies

  FEATURE |  By Samuel Greengard,
  November 05, 2020

• What is Text Analysis?

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  November 02, 2020

• How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 29, 2020

• Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 23, 2020

• The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 16, 2020

• Top 10 Chatbot Platforms

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  October 07, 2020

• Finding a Career Path in AI

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  October 05, 2020

• CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science

  FEATURE |  By Guest Author,
  September 25, 2020

• Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 25, 2020

• Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2021

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  September 22, 2020

• NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 18, 2020

• Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By James Maguire,
  September 14, 2020

• Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By James Maguire,
  September 13, 2020

• IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 11, 2020

• Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality

  FEATURE |  By James Maguire,
  September 09, 2020