Bill Gates didn’t sound quite like himself speaking Monday at the third
annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit in Redmond. While his usual
adoration for technology and innovation was present, so was an unusual
praise for open source.
Despite Microsoft’s
stance against sharing code, Gates touted the Shared Source
Initiative, which makes source code accessible to some of the company’s
customers, partners, researchers, governments and academicians.
Through this initiative, Microsoft is increasing its outreach to the
academic and research community via expanded source access, the ability to
modify and distribute code for research purposes, and the ability to
incorporate shared source code into courseware without a fee.
Yesterday’s touting of the Shared Source Initiative sets the stage for the
expected announcement of an initiative to release some of Microsoft’s
compiler code later this week.
The Seattle Times, quoting Microsoft research director, Rick Rashid, is
reporting that the new initiative, which has been codenamed Phoenix, will
make Microsoft compiler code available to universities for their work and
experimentation.
A compiler
binary code that a computer can read. Because of the proprietary and
complicated nature of these programs, it is a surprise to many that
Microsoft is making this piece of the puzzle available.
While Microsoft is keeping tight lipped about the project until its release,
which is expected to come sometime later in the week, the company is also
highlighting its other academic efforts at the conference.
To date there are more than 100 universities with Microsoft source access
and there have been more than 125,000 downloads of Windows CE .NET and
Windows CE 3.0 shared source code, with over 20 percent of these downloads
by professors, researchers and students.
“Collaboration between industry and academia is crucial to deliver on our
shared vision for the future of technology and education,” Gates said at the
event yesterday. “Microsoft remains committed to deepening its relationship
with academia, because only by working together can we create the next
generation of computing technology.”
The acceleration of Microsoft’s Shared Source Initiative comes as the
company is feeling the double burn of universities increasingly employing
open source infrastructures and producing graduates more versed in languages
such as Sun’s Java.
Microsoft will invest $75 million to support research and education
worldwide through its Research University Relations department in hopes of
remedying the situation.
The annual faculty summit provides a forum for the exchange of information
and ideas, with academics presenting their latest research projects and
findings and viewing presentations and demonstrations from Microsoft that
highlight the company’s current research and products in development.
