Don't cry for the open-source heroes
I don't think anyone will be shedding any tears over Microsoft's open-source heroes promotion -- except possibly for true open-source zealots who still hate the idea that Microsoft is managing to convince some open-source vendors to port their wares to Windows.
On February 27, Microsoft will hold its "Heroes Happen Here" launch in Los Angeles, where the company will officially launch Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. At that launch, Microsoft will tout software and hardware products that have are running successfully on Windows Server 2008. Word is, several open-source-software makers will be among them. Hence "Open Source Heroes," the site to which blogger Long Zheng was first to point.
Remember: Microsoft has been courting actively the OSS community to introduce Windows versions of their Linux products. And it has had some successes: MySQL, JBoss and SugarCRM, to name three. Microsoft has been working with these vendors to get their products work on Windows Server 2003.
As of the February 27 launch, Microsoft is predicting it will have tens of applications from both Microsoft and third-party software makers with products that are designated as being either "Certified For" Windows Server 2008 or qualify as "Works With" Windows Server 2008. Within a few months, it will have hundreds, company officials told me recently.
(Certified apps must pass a battery of 90 tests; Works With must pass about 20 tests. Both Veritas and Wipro are handling the testing.)
So what got former Softie Robert Scoble all teary-eyed this week? It wasn't a bunch of OSS running on Windows Server. Sounds a lot more likely, as Seattle-Times reporter Brier Dudley says, that it was some kind of amalgamation of the Worldwide Telescope (one of Microsoft Researcher Jim Gray's pet projects) and some Microsoft-research technology, perhaps PhotoSynth. ZDNet's Dan Farber is on the same wavelength and has lots more details on the Worldwide Telescope and how it likely relates to what Scoble saw. And given that Microsoft is holding a Microsoft ResearchTechFest the week after Scoble will be allowed to spill the beans on this "world-changing" app, I'd say it's fair to bet that Scoble wasn't all choked up over application certification....