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Microsoft Open Source Software

Microsoft Open Sources and Forks Windows Live Writer Into Open Live Writer 44

SmartAboutThings writes: Windows Live Writer is a blogging tool that Microsoft originally released back in 2006, and it still remains popular today, which has prompted Microsoft to promise that it will make it open source earlier this year. Now the company has officially open-sourced and forked Windows Live Writer into Open Live Writer, having put its repositories on GitHub already.
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Microsoft Open Sources and Forks Windows Live Writer Into Open Live Writer

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  • Comic Chat (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10, 2015 @08:22AM (#51094275)

    I'm waiting for them to open source Comic Chat.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday December 10, 2015 @08:32AM (#51094311)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by Jason Levine ( 196982 ) on Thursday December 10, 2015 @08:50AM (#51094373) Homepage

      I actually use Windows Live Writer. It's a nice interface to write in, attach photos to a blog post, set categories, and upload the whole thing while scheduling when it will go live. I began using it years ago when WordPress' built-in editor was horrible. WordPress has improved since then, but I still like WLW. Recently, I had begun to worry that WLW was going to be tossed aside and not developed anymore. Open sourcing it gives me hope that people can continue to improve the product and keep it as a viable, locally installed alternative editor to WordPress' built-in editor.

      • I too use it to post across various WP sites and it's great. Not sure what new features could be brought in, but it's good to see it being released into the OS ecosystem. I hope a few dedicated developers improve it, maybe connect it to cloud storage or allow some cool integration with social media.
    • I think what's interesting about this note is that Microsoft has been open sourcing software lately for some reason, even if it's innocuous stuff like visual studio code. [slashdot.org] It makes you wonder what they're up to.

      • by Archangel Michael ( 180766 ) on Thursday December 10, 2015 @11:37AM (#51095201) Journal

        They are releasing this stuff OpenSource, because the ecosystem is filled with similar tools that work just as well, and Microsoft needs to be relevant. Would you use these tools if they weren't free or open source? Of course not. It is out of necessity.

        Microsoft is becoming less relevant each passing day. With Chromebooks, iPads, Android, iOS and whatever else is "next", there are more viable choices now than ever before.

        • by tepples ( 727027 )

          Microsoft is becoming less relevant each passing day. With Chromebooks, iPads, Android, iOS and whatever else is "next", there are more viable choices now than ever before.

          If Microsoft products are becoming less relevant, and desktop GNU/Linux still hasn't taken off in anglophone countries, then what's becoming more relevant among people who maintain web sites or develop web or native applications? Replacing your PC with a Mac?

        • by SQLGuru ( 980662 )

          Actually, VS Code is a nice editor.....I've opted to install it instead of several others on my new work PC. I still think that Microsoft's tools are some of the most developer friendly and Visual Studio is the best IDE. But for projects that aren't based on that tech, VS Code is pretty good.

          • by praxis ( 19962 )

            It's a nice IDE, but the editor is pretty mediocre compared with vi, Emacs, Sublime Text, and others. The Visual Studio extension ecosystem is just not that mature.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Local editor with upload-to-web buttons != Monolithic trojan that occasionally displays blog pages.

      Just dumped it out there with an MIT license of all things and said have at it. I gotta respect that.

    • by DrStrangluv ( 1923412 ) on Thursday December 10, 2015 @09:45AM (#51094597)
      If you work with multiple blogs on several servers, WLW allowed you to do all your writing/editing from one place.
    • Wordpress is a security NIGHTMARE.

      Worse the people who make them use insecure extensions that need to be patched regularly but do not patch them EVER. They put something up in 2009 and expect never to touch it again.

      It is a poor system in general.

    • by ripvlan ( 2609033 ) on Thursday December 10, 2015 @10:39AM (#51094883)

      Yeah - as several other folks have posted - WLW was pretty good. It was simple and had only the necessary bells-whistles. Followed the KISS principle - I couldn't believe MS created it. The only thing to come out of the "Windows Live" era that was any good.

      I liked it because I did most of my writing offline (disconnected) - plus it produced "real" HTML without lots of frames-in-frames.

      As for MS open sourcing it - why not? The new sheriff has committed MS to Open Source - so rather than kill off something that many liked - just upload it on SourceFor^H^H^H^H....github and enjoy the independent life.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Troll. Despite Wordpress, Live Writer is still popular. The world doesn't (thankfully) revolve around you.

  • So, Microsoft has timeline-editing software to let them insert actions into their own chronological past? Cool!

    Perhaps Microsoft promised earlier this year that it will make WLW open-source, and is now doing so? Or perhaps they promised that they would make it open-source earlier this year, but are only now doing so?

    • Your suggestion is for something that would make the text easier to read. Not all /. readers are native speakers and we have a hard time trying to make sense of badly constructed sentences. Thank you.
      • But apparently at least one reader with mod points thinks this is trolling. Whatever.

        I do try to make allowances for posters and submitters who don't have strong English skills. But as long as submissions are reviewed and edited, I think those editors ought to take enough pride in their work to make sure accepted submissions are coherent.

    • I give MS kudos. IBM was the jerk before they lost their monopoly.

      Now MS is being all nice. VS code is open sourced. .NET is open sourced. I believe they opened up another project recently too a week or two ago.

  • can we expect a linux port?
    • There's some Win32/Cpp, but it's mainly .Net, so I'd expect any eventual "port" to come via MS's efforts to bring .Net to linux.

A committee takes root and grows, it flowers, wilts and dies, scattering the seed from which other committees will bloom. -- Parkinson

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