Michael Dolan Dot Com

Wednesday, November 1st, 2006

Windows CE6 Launched Under “Shared Source” not “Open Source”

How open is “shared source“…? Mundie basically said “shared source” is better than “open source” during the Q&A because with shared source developers can keep their code private and don’t have to release the code they create. I almost spewed my Cherry Coke over my desk. Has he not heard of BSD license? Has he not heard of building on top of GPL – see the Nokia 770? To say that “all open source” requires you to open source your applications is so counter to everything known that I cannot conceive where he would get this… maybe he and Bill Hilf need to talk.

Interestingly Microsoft created a special license for CE6 – and didn’t choose one of its 3/6 official shared source licenses.

Read the license for yourself before you blindly read press.

I think things like the Nokia 770 are going to revolutionize how we communicate. Once we get to WiMAX and 4G networks, it’s all going to change. I met the team behind the Nokia 770 over a week ago and they are a very interesting, break the mold group that I can see making a large impact going forward with their Maemo platform.