Catalysts Limited

The future of open source programming took an exciting twist with the announcement that Microsoft is developing a native running open source platform for Windows.

The news was released by Microsoft's open source developer Garrett Serack in a post on his blog. Serack began by identifying the differences between open source development on UNIX, Linux and Windows platforms and the difficulties currently faced by open source programmers writing for a Windows environment.

Serack's post outlined some of the features that the platform - called the Common Opensource Application Publishing Platform (CoApp) - will include. Aiming to support both 32 bit and 64 bit systems, the platform will "provide a distributed, community driven package management system for open source applications on the Windows platform". CoApp will handle multiple versions of binaries, create reliable installer packages, facilitate the sharing of components and allow for upgrades and patching. Serack also stressed that the finished platform will be admin- and developer-friendly and support future technologies.

The announcement of CoApp is a notable development in Microsoft's approach to open source programming. No timetable for completion was mentioned in Serack's blog, but he hinted that it will be available next year.

Read the full post at: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/garretts/archive/2010/03/31/the-common-opensource-application-publishing-platform-coapp.aspx