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Digital Journal reports that Microsoft has formed a new partnership with Zend Technologies, whose founders the Journals says "were integral in creating the open-source PHP language. PHP runs some of the world’s most popular blogs and the Wikipedia website. Is Microsoft "backpedeling" as the article suggests? Sorry if I'm boring, but I see Microsoft making a simliar move with any technology, not just FOSS, and it would not be motivated just because a technology is FOSS. Microsoft sees an important technology that it wants to run better on its platform, recognizes the widespread adoption of this technology, and wants a chance to get new developers to join the Windows environment.
Despite a few rhetorical flourishes, Digital Journal gets it mostly right: “Zend is a clear leader in the PHP community, and we are excited to be working with it on this joint collaboration effort designed to provide developers using PHP with the best possible experience within a Microsoft environment,” said Bill Hilf, GM of Technical Platform Strategy at Microsoft.
Microsoft’s move comes as no surprise. PHP works much faster with Linux and the open-source server Apache than with Windows servers. Hilf intends to level the playing field by teaming with Zend so PHP can be optimized for Windows, and will be made available for January 2007. So lets see here. Is Microsoft sending a feel better hug to FOSS after witnessing its chief henchman, Stallman, and star company Red Hat, get tripped up in the past month; is Bill Gates, in his nearing retirement phase, looking more kindly to the movement that depicts him as Darth Vader; are the engineers in Redmond incapable of developing similiar technology? None of these is likely. Redmond is working in its self-interest, and for once, someone gave it incentive to work with FOSS rather than spout some kind of revolutionary takeover of the company.
posted by Noel Le @ 2:29 PM | Free Culture Movement, Software
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