On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 9:53 AM, Gakuru Alex
<alexgakuru.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
Interesting...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alex Gakuru <gakuru@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 10:53 PM
Subject: [ke-internetusers] Repentant Microsoft re-issues Windows 7
tool as open-source
To: ke-users <ke-internetusers@bdix.net>
Revises netbook upgrade tool after admitting it copied code
By Gregg Keizer
December 10, 2009
Computerworld - Microsoft yesterday re-released a Windows 7
installation tool that it admitted included open-source code, and has
posted the utility's source code to its own open-source site.
The move came three weeks after Microsoft announced it had delayed the
re-release of the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT) because the
software needed additional testing. At the time, Peter Galli,
Microsoft's open-source community manager, said that WDUT would be
re-issued in the "next few weeks."
Earlier in November, Microsoft pulled WUDT after blogger Rafael Rivera
accused the company of lifting code from the GPLv2-licensed
"Imagemaster" open-source project. Rivera, who writes the Within
Windows blog, said Microsoft compounded the problem by not
acknowledging the source of the code embedded in WDUT, and by not
sharing the source code for its modifications, or for the tool itself,
to the project -- as required by the terms of GPL (GNU General Public
License).
WDUT has now been released under the provisions of GPLv2, Galli said yesterday.
However, because Microsoft was forced to split the new WDUT into
several components due to licensing requirements, some users must now
go through a more complicated installation procedure, Galli
acknowledged. Customers running Windows XP must install .Net Framework
2 and the Image Mastering API (application programming interface)
before installing WDUT, according to new instructions published by
Microsoft.
Microsoft originally released WUDT in October, when it touted the tool
as a way for netbook owners to create a bootable flash drive from a
downloaded .iso file, or disk image, of Windows 7 purchased from
Microsoft's online store. Most netbooks lack an optical drive and so
can't install the new OS from a DVD.
After WDUT's release, Rivera accused Microsoft of taking code from the
open-source Imagemaster project. Yesterday, Rivera said that Microsoft
had pulled the Imagemaster code from WDUT at the request of its maker.
"I suspect he freaked out after half the Internet started linking to
the project -- understandable -- and pulled the code," Rivera said on
his blog Wednesday.
Microsoft took heat from several corners over the GPL license
violation. Computerworld blogger Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, for
example, blasted Microsoft for the gaffe. "It seems Microsoft still
can't resist stealing from open-source software," Vaughan-Nichols said
last month.
After Microsoft yanked WDUT and announced it would re-release the tool
under GPLv2, however, Vaughan-Nichols changed his tune. "Maybe
Microsoft is changing their ways when it comes to open source," he
said several days later.
WDUT can be downloaded directly from Microsoft's site (.exe download).
The source code for WDUT has been posted to CodePlex, Microsoft's
open-source repository.
<http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9142088/Repentant_Microsoft_re_issues_Windows_7_tool_as_open_source?taxonomyId=140>
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