Open Source


Giving Back to the OSS Community

While we often talk of how we can leverage OSS to deliver a higher-quality product, rarely do we talk about how we can give back to the OSS community.

The Evolving Definition of 'Big Data'

While there's lots of talk about big data these days (a lot of talk), there currently is no good, authoritative definition of big data, according to Microsoft Regional Director Andrew Brust.

Write Faster Code by Adding VIM to Visual Studio

VIM is a text editor with a Visual Studio extension. Its time-saving power is well worth the learning curve.

Live from Visual Studio Live!: Microsoft Opens Development of ASP.NET Projects

Scott Hanselman, senior program manager in Microsoft's Developer Division, said that the decision wasn't really about open source: "This is about open development."

Clean Up NuGet Dependencies With Chewie

Chewie is a domain-specific language that uses PowerShell to tame NuGet installations.

Amazon Scales Up and Out with New 'DynamoDB' Service

DynamoDB, based on NoSQL, uses solid-state drives to increase speed.

The Shifting Sands of the Microsoft Ecosystem

As the market becomes more diffuse, its practitioners and participants must cope and adapt.

NSpec Simplifies Unit Testing

NSpec is a no-nonsense BDD framework for the .NET Framework, influenced by RSpec and leveraging NUnit assertions.

Chocolatey Goodness: A Sweet Installer

Chocolatey is a powerful installation program for open-source software.

Raking in the Rewards of Codified Build Scripts: Albacore

Build scripts are finally being treated as first-class development citizens, thanks to tools like psake, FAKE, and Rake + Albacore. Ian Davis explores the Ruby-based, open source Albacore DSL.

The IronLanguages Open Source Project

Late last year Microsoft took IronRuby, IronPython and the Dynamic Language Runtime projects open source. Here's a look at the open source dynamic language resources for Visual Studio.

Copy and Paste: Redmond's Open Source Strategy

On occasion I've been surprised that Microsoft has put significant effort into developing features and functionality already available within the developer ecosystem.

Survey: Devs Adopting Open Source, But Management Lacking

A survey of 1600 software development professionals shows widespread uptake of open source solutions marred by lack of effective policies and integration.

Microsoft Tells Congress To Reform U.S. Patent Laws

Microsoft wants Congress to reform the U.S. patent laws by focusing on five issues that intellectual property stakeholders most want, according to the company's legal counsel.

Devs: Android Catching up to iPad

In a manner similar to its growth in the smartphone arena, Google's mobile OS, Android, is gaining ground quickly on Apple's iOS, which powers the iPhone and iPad devices.

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