OStatic

Microsoft announced on Friday that it would be joining the Apache Software Foundation, one of the leading organizations in the open-source world. Microsoft became a platinum sponsor of the ASF, which costs $100,000/year and is the highest level of sponsorship that the foundation offers. In a blog posting announcing the sponsorship, Sam Ramji, Microsoft's senior director of platform strategy and head of its open source software lab, indicated that this demonstrates Microsoft's interest in working along with Apache on many projects. At the same time, he wrote that this does not mean Microsoft is turning its back on proprietary software, including its IIS Web server.

Last week, Microsoft announced Equipt, a subscription service for Microsoft Office and related products. The product, which will cost $70/year and be sold at Circuit City stores, will provide the user with one year of updated anti-virus and spyware programs, Microsoft Office, and access to the Live workspace product for sharing documents. Equipt is not an open-source package. Rather, this is a way to keep the revenue coming from Microsoft Office. But Microsoft's new pricing strategy both vindicates and challenges business strategies employed by open-source companies.