The FOSS (Free/Open Source Software) Community knows, thanks to leaked Microsoft internal documents, that since about 1998 Microsoft has been in a sort of war against them. Because of this, it is not surprising that the FOSS community has looked at Microsoft with suspicion and has vilified it to no end. But, is Microsoft really evil?

Much of the reaction from FOSS folks to news that Microsoft is joining the Open Source Census centers on concern that Microsoft is out to find open source users and what open source software they’re using. I think that may be exactly right.

Microsoft has appointed a new point man to put a face on its interaction with the open source community. That man, Robert Duffner, takes on a big task as senior director of Platform and Open Source Software strategy at Microsoft. His IBM and BEA roots will help him place his mark on the Microsoft strategy, but the core message remains the same.

No user of free and open source software (FOSS) can escape having an opinion about Microsoft. Microsoft products and technologies represent what FOSS users have left behind. Some consider it increasingly irrelevant, and others a shadowy figure comparable to Satan in the Middle Ages or the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Some of the best software available is open source, but non-proprietary software has enemies as well as friends. Not surprisingly, then there's been plenty of fog on Capitol Hill about free and open source software (FOSS) for a decade now.

Preluded by the discomforting subject line “Microsoft infiltrating into open source world,” we have just received a headsup from an anonymous reader.

Yes, you read the title correctly. I only run FOSS systems, including GNU/Linux, BSD, Open Solaris, Minix, GNU/HURD, and Plan Nine From Bell Labs. I'll even give a favorable nod to Apple hardware if I see it running FOSS software. But I am adamantly opposed to running a single byte of Microsoft code under my roof or associated with my business.

"Yet another open source software provider has signed a licensing and patent agreement with Microsoft. The VAR Guy wonders: Is Microsoft moving a few strategic pieces into place before launching a legal showdown against Red Hat?"

About 70 percent of the time, a mobile app that contains open source code fails to comply with basic FOSS licensing requirements, according to a study conducted by OpenLogic. With hundreds of thousands of mobile apps for platforms like iOS and Android, violations could be quite rampant, if the study's sample is representative of the whole. But who's place is it enforce these licenses, and how?