Microsoft has banned third-party developers from commercially using Open Source solutions in the Microsoft Store. Moreover, according to the new terms of use of the application store, free applications based on open source software with the possibility of voluntary donations to developers to continue their development also fall under the restriction.
Microsoft explained that this is done for the sake of users, to limit irrationally high prices for solutions that are actually free or programs that are available elsewhere for free.
Experts from the open source community, including the OpenNET portal, believe that "publication of paid builds in the Microsoft Store has previously been used as one of the fundraising options by projects such as Krita, Paint.NET, WinSCP and ShotCut." Also, changes to the rules will affect other open projects, such as Inkscape, which are available in the Microsoft Store for free, but there is an opportunity to transfer an arbitrary amount to developers to support the project.
A Microsoft representative explained that it has become difficult for them to identify the real developers of open source applications from scammers who sell clones of such projects to users, and these official products can be downloaded for free.
The open source community complained to Microsoft that this was wrong, as it would be the actual project teams that would suffer. The head of the Microsoft Store, Giorgio Sardo, took into account the position of the community, promised to revise the rules and add a clause to them allowing commercial support for developers of open source projects under certain conditions.
Microsoft suspending new rules
On July 8, Sardo announced that Microsoft was suspending new rules on open source apps in the Microsoft Store. The company has taken a pause on the decision, during which the Microsoft Store team will offer new options to combat "the fraudulent sale of natively free apps and the illegal placement of free software there."
The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC), a non-profit organization that provides support and legal services for open source software projects, believes that such a ban on the sale of open source software in the Microsoft Store by the company is unacceptable. According to the SFC, "any truly open or free system is always available for free use - the developers work in public and do not interfere with the creation of modifications and the formation of builds for any platform."
GitHub Copilot AI tool
Starting June 21, the GitHub Copilot AI tool, trained on public source code in the GitHub repositories, is available after a trial period to all developers with a subscription for $10 or $100 per year. Only students and developers of popular open source projects can use the service for free. Microsoft is the owner of GitHub.
Michael Zippo
2022/07/10
https://linkedin.com/in/michael-zippo-9136441b1
[email protected]
Sources: Python.Engineering