Microsoft Uses Open-Source Code Despite Denying Use of Such Software
By LEE GOMES
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Microsoft Corp., even while mounting a new campaign against
open-source software, has quietly been using such free computer
code in several major products, as well as on key portions of a
popular Web site -- despite denying last week that it did so.
Software connected with the FreeBSD open-source operating
system is used in several places deep inside several versions of
Microsoft's Windows software, such as in the "TCP/IP" section
that arranges all connections to the Internet. The company also
uses FreeBSD on numerous "server" computers that manage
major functions at its Hotmail free e-mail service, whose
registered users exceed 100 million and make it one of the Web's
busiest sites.
Microsoft acknowledged its repeated use
of open-source code Friday, in response
to questions about the matter. Just two
days earlier, it had specifically denied the
existence of any such software at
Hotmail.
"Open-source" programs, such as the
popular Linux operating system, are typically free and allow users
to view and modify blueprint-like instructions known as source
code. The growing popularity of such software is among the most
potent competition for some of Microsoft's products, and for a
new technology it has proposed called Microsoft.NET.
In recent statements, Microsoft executives have argued that
open-source software is dangerous to companies using it, in large
part because of the licensing provisions that accompany the
software. Microsoft Vice President Craig Mundie, for example,
said in a recent speech that all open-source software "has inherent
security risks and can force intellectual property into the public
domain."
But Microsoft's statements Friday suggest the company has itself
been taking advantage of the very technology it has insisted would
bring dire consequences to others. "I am appalled at the way
Microsoft bashes open source on the one hand, while depending
on it for its business on the other," said Marshall Kirk McKusick,
a leader of the FreeBSD development team.
While not as well-known as Linux, FreeBSD has a strong
following in the technical community. Much of Microsoft's use of
the software at Hotmail was uncovered Thursday evening by
Trevor Johnson, a FreeBSD developer in Los Angeles who used
standard Internet monitoring tools to check on the computers at
Hotmail. Mr. Johnson said he acted because he was skeptical of
Microsoft's claim, in a Wall Street Journal article Thursday, that
there was no FreeBSD left at the service.
When Microsoft moved to buy Hotmail in 1997, it was already
running on FreeBSD, and continued to do so for several years, a
source of some embarrassment to Microsoft. The company had
earlier said, though, that it removed all FreeBSD from Hotmail
last summer, and even has a lengthy technical paper on its Web
site describing the transition.
But Friday, Microsoft conceded FreeBSD was still being used at
Hotmail on machines that track advertising and that run a crucial
Internet function known as "DNS hosting." A Microsoft
spokesman said he couldn't explain why Microsoft had given out
incorrect information on the topic.
The spokesman said FreeBSD was still in use simply because the
company had yet to switch the machines over to Windows.
But one employee of the Redmond, Wash., company said
Microsoft has deliberately kept FreeBSD in parts of Hotmail
because of its technical superiority over Windows in important
functions and furthermore had decided to actually increase its
reliance on FreeBSD. Many of the company's Web sites went
down much of a day in January, and this person said FreeBSD
was judged to be better than Windows at helping to prevent a
recurrence of the problem.
On Friday, several FreeBSD volunteers combing through
Microsoft products, including the new Windows 2000 operating
system, found numerous instances where Microsoft had made use
of their software -- something perfectly legal for it to do. The
Microsoft spokesman, in acknowledging that fact, said it didn't
contradict the company's many recent anti-open-source
statements. He said that's because Microsoft's main objection has
been to Linux, which has a more restrictive licensing arrangement
than FreeBSD.
Microsoft, though, hasn't previously suggested that there were
benign forms of open-source software, and while singling out
Linux for special criticism, has tended to criticize all open-source
with the same broad brush.
In its campaign against open-source, Microsoft has been unable to
come up with examples of companies being harmed by it. One
reason, said Eric von Hippel, a Massachusetts Institute of
Technology professor who heads up a research effort in the field,
is that virtually all the available evidence suggests that open source
is "a huge advantage" to companies. "They are able to build on a
common standard that is not owned by anyone," he said. "With
Windows, Microsoft owns them."
Write to Lee Gomes at lee.gomes@wsj.com3 |
