Microsoft's Web Sandbox Live Labs project is now available under an open source license. Microsoft chose the Apache 2.0 license for the project, but pointed out that the project will not become an Apache project, although the vendor has been a member of the Apache Software Foundation since July 2008.

Microsoft has upped its ante with the open source community by re-committing its pledge to deliver $100,000 to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) over the next couple of years.

It seems like our initial reaction was right. It occurred just before finding validation in other sources whose assessment was similar. Here are some bits and pieces that you probably read to consider before falling victim to Microsoft's media blitz.

Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) Web servers are more than twice as likely to deliver malware to unsuspecting users than the open source Apache Web server, according to a recent security survey performed by Internet search giant Google. That's quite an allegation, coming as it does from one of Microsoft's chief competitors.

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Last April (April-29-2010) there was a local event in Ecuador organized by AESoft, the Ecuadorian Software association. This event was names “Integrated Technologies” and was sponsored by Microsoft, CodePlex, Port25 and The Apache Foundation. On this conference Microsoft sent a message saying that they are Open Source friendly and they support Open Source development.

Microsoft's Vista is out and Apple's Leopard is poised, but as far as Linux goes, well, hey, it's open source. That means there aren't millions of dollars in the piggy bank for a catchy media blitz. Quite frankly, if its last major revision was in 2003, why would there be? Linux has gotten so efficient that major releases have been repeatedly postponed because of lack of need.

When the story about Microsoft shelling out $100,000 to Apache for ASF sponsorship broke across my radar it rather tickled my funny bone and my curiosity.

As we reported recently, the ApacheCon 2009 conference is rapidly approaching, to be held November 2nd through 6th in Oakland, California. The conference will feature sessions and speakers talking not only about web server- and services-related topics, but about the Hadoop software framework for data-intensive queries, and the many sub-projects that the Apache Software Foundation oversees.

More evidence is emerging that Apache is suffering against Redmond, after a survey revealed that Microsoft's Internet Information Services Web server is outserving Apache on Fortune 1000 websites.