Eclipse Foundation snuggles up to Microsoft

By David Worthington

January 26, 2009 —

The Eclipse Foundation is looking for opportunities to work more closely with Microsoft, says Mike Milinkovich, its executive director. Meanwhile, one observer is skeptical about whether a close Microsoft-Eclipse partnership would truly be a win-win scenario.

The Eclipse Foundation's goal for 2009 is to work with Microsoft for opportunities in utilizing Eclipse tooling for its platforms, said Milinkovich.

He explained that the majority of Eclipse developers target Windows, and that Eclipse could serve as an onramp to help bring developers to Microsoft's platforms. "It's a win-win for both parties," he declared, noting that 84% of all Eclipse downloads are for the Windows platform.

Microsoft has already thrown its support behind a third-party project to integrate the Eclipse IDE with its Silverlight technology. Milinkovich says that the Eclipse Foundation could partner with Microsoft directly to create SQL Server data manipulation and administration tools, as well as on projects related to service-oriented architecture and modeling.

Eclipse's software modeling framework can be made interoperable with Microsoft's M modeling language by leveraging the XML Metadata Interchange model interchange language, he noted.

The foundation is talking to the appropriate technical leaders at Microsoft, but it has not received any commitment yet, Milinkovich said. "Working with Microsoft is like wildcat oil drilling: You hit a lot of dry wells, but there is a good one once in a while. Microsoft is very approachable, and it is making decisions for business reasons, as it should be."

Tony Wasserman, a professor of software management practice and executive director at the Center for Open Source Investigation at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, said, "In thinking about possible relationships between Microsoft and the Eclipse Foundation, it would make sense for the two groups to collaborate in those areas where benefits would accrue to their respective users."

A Microsoft-Eclipse partnership must work on a business, technical and personal level if it is likely to succeed, Wasserman said. He added that while the "win" for Microsoft is clear, he is less sure on what the "win" is for the Eclipse Foundation, other than having Microsoft join as a strategic member and contributing up to US$500,000 per year.

"Given the current makeup of the Board of the Eclipse Foundation, I'm not sure how such a membership application would be received," he said. Microsoft did not return comment by press time when asked about whether it intended to join the Eclipse Foundation board.

Eclipse developers paid by their employers to work on an Eclipse-related project would not have much of a reaction one way or the other, said Wasserman. However, the reception from unpaid volunteers might be cooler, he noted. "A typical unpaid volunteer contributor to an Eclipse project might be less likely to work on the project if he (or she) felt that his or her work was going to benefit a large for-profit business such as Microsoft."

Related Search Term(s): Eclipse, SOA, SQL, Microsoft

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Comments

01/28/2009 04:36:54 PM EST

"A typical unpaid volunteer contributor to an Eclipse project might be less likely to work on the project if he (or she) felt that his or her work was going to benefit a large for-profit business such as Microsoft." This is FUD, and tries to perpetuate the myth that all free software contributors are somehow anti-business and anti-money. Eclipse was started by IBM - who seem to be doing quite well in the large for-profit business front, even in these tough times. Microsoft is disliked specifically because of their nasty behaviour - they've been found guilty of illegal behaviour in several countries and regions. They are not disliked simply because they are 'rich and successful'. It should probably read that volunteers would be unhappy with working with a company who has been spending years trying to destroy Java, and one who has shown not to treat partners with any level of respect.

AustraliaMichael

01/29/2009 05:36:13 PM EST

United KingdomNeil Bartlett

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