Here’s some great news for the open source community. The pre-release version of Microsoft’s Windows Store App Developer Agreement allows open source applications to be submitted to the Windows Store and this is also great news for all Windows users as it will also allow popular open source apps like OpenOffice and VLC Media Player to have a presence on the application store.
Open Source applications violate the General Public Licensing, however the new agreement will replace the open source license with Microsoft Standard Application License Terms for sharing applications. At this state the agreement states that,
“Apps that are released under an Open Source Initiative-recognized open source license can, at least in the pre-release version of the Windows Store, be distributed according to terms that contradict Microsoft’s Standard Application License Terms if this is required by the open source license. Among other things, the Standard Application License Terms prohibit the sharing of applications.”
and
“License terms must also not conflict with the Standard Application License Terms, in any way, except if you include FOSS, your license terms may conflict with the limitations set forth in Section 3 of those Terms, but only to the extent required by the FOSS that you use. “FOSS” means any software licensed under an Open Source Initiative Approved License.”
This will hence allow open source app developers to publish their apps in the pre-release version of the Windows Store, but the agreement is still subject to change. However, it is yet to be clarified whether it will be allowed in the final release version of the Windows 8 Store.
|Via|
