.NET Micro Community Develops
The .NET Micro Framework community dev site went live at the end of January.
Microsoft made its .NET programming model and execution environment for embedded devices available under the Apache 2.0 license in November when version 4.0 was released at PDC09. NETMF 4.0 was the first release under Microsoft's Developer Division; the original technology was developed as part of Microsoft's Startup Business Accelerator program.
The Apache license includes source code for most of the components, Base Class Libraries and CLR. It does not include the TCP/IP stack, which Microsoft licenses from ESBNET or the Cryptography libraries because of their use and distribution in other technologies, according to a Port25 blog authored by Peter Galli, open source community manager for Microsoft's Platform Strategy Group.
The NETMF community dev site is a collaboration portal for users, developers and vendors. Developers can contribute extensions, services or even to the code itself, although Microsoft is still driving the core technology implementation in what it describes as a "community development model."
In November, Galli explained:
"…Microsoft intends to remain actively involved in its ongoing development, working alongside the community. While the license will allow customers to take the code and make specialized versions to fit their needs, customers told us they wanted Microsoft to stay involved to avoid any possible fragmentation of the platform."
Will a community development model work? Express your thoughts on .NET Micro today and its future as an open source project. Drop me a line at krichards@1105media.com.
Posted by Kathleen Richards on 02/25/2010 at 2:51 PM