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Sam Ramji leaving Microsoft From the 'Good Luck In Your Future Endeavors' files: Sam Ramji, Microsoft's front man for all things open source, is leaving Microsoft effective September 25th. Ramji made the announcement today during a call with press announcing the formation of the CodePlex Foundation. I've spoken with Ramji many times over the last few years and met him on a number of occasions. I've always been impressed with how he stands his ground and responds to questions, not always from friendly audiences. "I am leaving on Microsoft on Sept 25th," Ramji said during the call. "I leave Microsoft at a time when I believe that open source has become part of the DNA of the company, especially engineering teams. There are many people within and across Microsoft that will continue to advocate for open source."The decision to leave Microsoft was a personal one. Ramji said during the call that due to illness in the family, he wanted to return to California. With Microsoft, he currently works in the Seattle area. Ramji said he will be joining a Silicon Valley cloud startup, though he didn't specifically name which one. Microsoft is currently in the process of searching for a replacement for Ramji, no word on whether they will promote someone internally or hire externally.
Whoever does replace Ramji will have one tough job.
Microsoft plays both sides against the middle when it comes to open source. On one hand, they have made tremendous efforts in recent years to engage the open source community. Microsoft now has it's own open source licenses, project hosting, a non-profit foundation as well as numerous efforts around interoperability. Then there is the whole issue of patents and the old school anti-Linux FUD (like the recent BestBuy case). I've seen Ramji stand at the front of a seemingly hostile open source crowd defending Microsoft. It didn't look like much fun to me, but he did it. Ramji was able to consistently withstand the barrage of Microsoft criticism that open source advocates have hurled his way. In my experience, Ramji always handled the criticism with tact and candor. He truly has been a credit to Microsoft's outreach efforts to the open source community. His replacement is likely to encounter the same challenges and the same skepticism -- that's no easy job. 0 TrackBacksListed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Sam Ramji leaving Microsoft. TrackBack URL for this entry: https://swarm.jupitermedia.com/mt-tb.cgi/8886 4 CommentsLeave a comment |
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With a company as large as Microsoft it's not surprising that high-profile executives will be leaving now and then. That could also hide a conflict in sentiments though. We'll know soon enough whatever the case may be. Good luck in your new endeavors Sam.
It'll be very interesting to see what happens with Microsoft's open source "lark"... My impression thus far is that Microsoft grudgingly love "open source" which they have defined to include all open source software *except* anything under truly free software licenses (e.g. GPL, AGPL, etc.). Those are not "business friendly" as they might say, because you can't easily take without giving back, too... MS claim to support the GPL, but they only seem to use the GPL to contribute to the Linux kernel in a totally self-serving way - to try to get people to use Linux VMs on top of Windows...
MS want to retain the *platform*... and they're losing it. On the cloud server, it's already lost. They never had it on the 'net server, and in the business it's slipping (people are starting to realise that Alfresco is WAAAAY better value (and better tech) than MS Sharepoint without any of the locking).
And I suspect in years to come we'll find that the oft-quoted "1%" figure for Linux' desktop marketshare is every bit as valid as the "Linux netbooks get returned 3 times more often than Win XP netbooks" line, which turned out to be a lie by MS' Kevin Turner: http://www.bmighty.com/blog/main/archives/2009/08/dell_exec_linux.html
Steve B has even stated in public that Linux desktop marketshare is closer to 10%. MS are crapping themselves, and with good reason.
If MS actually, sincerely supported open source and free software (which they cannot do, since it reduces their return to shareholders), it would take YEARS for them to convince me of it, as their duplicity has been so pervasive over the past 15 years, they've dug themselves a VERY deep hole of ill-will and have earned themselves many a swift kick in the nuts.
I don't know of any commonly-accepted definition of "free software" (including the FSF's) that excludes MS-PL and other BSD/MIT-like licenses, nor do I know of anywhere that MSFT has ever claimed to support the GPL.
It'll be very interesting to see what happens with Microsoft's open source "lark"... My impression thus far is that Microsoft grudgingly love "open source" which they have defined to include all open source software *except* anything under truly free software licenses (e.g. GPL, AGPL, etc.). Those are not "business friendly" as they might say, because you can't easily take without giving back, too... MS claim to support the GPL, but they only seem to use the GPL to contribute to the Linux kernel in a totally self-serving way - to try to get people to use Linux VMs on top of Windows...
MS want to retain the *platform*... and they're losing it. On the cloud server, it's already lost. They never had it on the 'net server, and in the business it's slipping (people are starting to realise that Alfresco is WAAAAY better value (and better tech) than MS Sharepoint without any of the locking).
And I suspect in years to come we'll find that the oft-quoted "1%" figure for Linux' desktop marketshare is every bit as valid as the "Linux netbooks get returned 3 times more often than Win XP netbooks" line, which turned out to be a lie by MS' Kevin Turner: http://www.bmighty.com/blog/main/archives/2009/08/dell_exec_linux.html
Steve B has even stated in public that Linux desktop marketshare is closer to 10%. MS are crapping themselves, and with good reason.
If MS actually, sincerely supported open source and free software (which they cannot do, since it reduces their return to shareholders), it would take YEARS for them to convince me of it, as their duplicity has been so pervasive over the past 15 years, they've dug themselves a VERY deep hole of ill-will and have earned themselves many a swift kick in the nuts.