Not open to MS

LinuxAsia 2007 "� a platform where proprietary software giants are denounced religiously "� proved eventful indeed. To begin with, Red Hat, a leading name in the open source software (OSS) field, pulled out due to "Microsoft's inclusion". Big names in the OSS world like Oracle, IBM and Sun were also conspicuous by their absence.

Observers infer that while Microsoft is extending an olive branch, the Open Source community does not appear to have warmed up.

Undeterred, Radhesh Balakrishanan, director (Platform Strategy), Microsoft, said: "Microsoft is now a part of the OSS world, and it is driven by our customers. They wanted us to make their Linux platforms talk to Windows, and it makes business sense to listen to the growing numbers of customers with the same demands."

Those who came out in support of Microsoft, though, included open source proponents like Brian Behlendorf from the Apache Foundation and Klaus Knopper from the Knoppix Project. Behlendorf justified the importance of Microsoft in LinuxAsia and its support network in "evangelising Linux and open source".

Critics of the proprietary model suggested they would like Microsoft to release "a free, open-source, stripped-down version of Windows to allow the open source community to take a look at the code and build on it".

Balakrishanan's defence was: "We are not saying use Microsoft or use open-source technologies. It's not as black and white as that."

He nearly 50 per cent of open source projects "are currently using Microsoft products". He cited recent partnerships with open source vendors like JBoss , MySQL and Novell to highlight simultaneous competition and collaborate in the space.