Monday December 05, 2005 Insider View
If you're following the debate about the attempt by Microsoft to have the file format for Office 12 rubber-stamped by Ecma, you really shouldn't miss the two gritty articles that Stephe Walli has written. There's possibly no better source for understanding the thinking behind Microsoft's announcements since Stephe used to work there.The first article, When Standards Collide, analyses the motives Microsoft has had in the decisions they have made. The second article, How Microsoft Should Have Played the ODF Standards Game, shows the insight that comes from experience. Both are a must-read, whichever side of the debate you take.
OpenGrok
You know what I really like about OpenSolaris?
It's the fact that it's probably the easiest open source project I know to
actually look at the source
code. On first encountering OpenSolaris, being able to just browse
through the source code and see how stuff is done is just awe-inspiring.
It drew me in, let me know the whole thing was real - it's all actually
open. Even new stuff like ZFS.
So it's really cool that the code that makes all this work is also open source. The multi-talented Chandan (he draws! he codes! he takes photos!) is the main brain behind it, and he's now packaging it for consumption outside OpenSolaris. If you're responsible for the web site hosting an open source project, run, don't walk, to go get OpenGrok and integrate it into your version control system. Your community will love you.
