Microsoft releases source code under an Apache license

Microsoft has released the source code for the Web Sandbox runtime created by its Live Labs team under the Apache 2.0 license.

Microsoft released a Community Technology Preview (CTP) test build of the Sandbox -- a way to secure Web content via virtualization -- in October 2008.

On January 26, Microsoft announced it would release the Web Sandbox source code under the Apache 2.0 license. From Open Source Community Manager Peter Galli's post to the Microsoft Port 25 blog:

"Since the initial release of Web Sandbox at PDC 2008, the team has received a lot of useful feedback from the web security community, and has also been collaborating with a number of customers, partners and the standards communities, all of whom want to adopt the  technology when it is ready.

"The goal? An open and interoperable standard that will help foster interoperability with complementary technologies like script frameworks and drive widespread adoption of the Web Sandbox."

Microsoft has released various pieces of code under bona-fide Open Source Initiative (OSI)-sanctioned open-source licenses over the past few years. When opting to release code under an OSI-approved license, Microsoft has relied most heavily on two of its Shared Source licenses -- the Microsoft Public License and the Microsoft Reciprocal License -- as its vehicles.

Microsoft has been stepping up its work with the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), but the Web Sandbox is not an ASF-endorsed project. Microsoft joined the apache Foundation last year and donated code to Apache's Stonehenge project at the start of this year.