Microsoft is Making .Net Open Source?

This bit of news is very interesting to me.  Microsoft, the king of "crack" coding is making their dot net framework open source.  For years if you wanted to code using dot net you needed a Windows platform machine, either desktop or server, and then simply install the framework.  ASP.Net developers like myself would need to configure IIS but the coding process is identical.  The problem I ran into most often was me building a website for a client who only had access to Linux hosting or an IT group who only worked with Linux based servers. 

I would usually win and they would be forced to install Windows Server however that always raised questions about security when the support staff wasn't familiar with Windows Server.  By offering up the framework to the open source community they are allowing developers to port the framework to Linux and Mac systems which not only adds to market share but will also compete directly with Java (*yuk)

On the downside it also opens up the framework to hackers looking to exploit applications written in dot net however given the maturity of the framework I doubt there will be any issues.

Several sites have posted this story and I find the ZDNet outlook to be accurate.  Give it a read.

Last week, Microsoft announced it was open sourcing the full server-side .NET stack, and expanding .NET to run on the Linux and Mac OS platforms.

The move was warmly received across the IT community, which often has been skeptical of Microsoft's intentions. (Well, with the possible exception of my good friend Adrian Bridgwater, who suggests the company's open source move was only to solidify its world domination.)

I'm an ASP.Net developer and I support this transition.

Related Web URL: http://www.zdnet.com/six-takeaways-from-microsofts...