Microsoft has contributed code to the open-source Samba project under the GPLv3 license.
As first reported here,
Microsoft has contributed a source code patch to the open-source Samba
file and print system. Samba has been around since 1992 as a set of
file and print services for clients using the SMB/CIFS (Server Message
Block/Common Internet File System) protocol, such as all versions of
DOS and Windows, OS/2, Linux and many others. It is an important
component to seamlessly integrate Linux/Unix servers and desktops into
Active Directory environments.
As such, Microsoft has not always been friendly to
Samba. Indeed, as history shows, Microsoft has not always been kind to
open source and still has its issues with certain aspects of the
open-source world. But the software giant has made great strides such
as initiating a strategic effort to work better with the open-source
community, opening an Open Source Technology Center and launching
CodePlex, a site for hosting open-source projects.
In an Oct. 10 post to the Samba technical mailing list, Stephen Zarkos,
a program manager in Microsoft’s Open Source Technology Center, said
Microsoft had submitted source code patches to Samba. Zarkos said:
“Earlier this year we had an intern working with
us to implement a proof of concept for extended protection (channel and
service binding) for Firefox and Samba. To enable this scenario
on the client side, we were able to use libraries available on Windows
and contribute code to the Mozilla team to make this all work. On
the Linux side, however, Firefox utilizes Samba for NTLM [NT LAN
Manager] authentication and so he also built some patches for Samba to
enable this scenario.”
The patch is significant in that Microsoft has had
a tense relationship with Samba in the past. In fact, Microsoft has
been working with Samba as a result of a court battle that Microsoft
lost.
In December 2007, the Protocol Freedom Information
Foundation (PFIF), a group created by the Software Freedom Law Center,
signed an agreement with Microsoft to receive the protocol
documentation needed to fully interoperate with the Microsoft Windows
workgroup server products and to make them available to Free Software
projects such as Samba. Microsoft was required to make this information
available to competitors as part of the European Commission’s March
24th 2004 decision in the antitrust lawsuit, after losing their appeal
against that decision on September 17th 2007. However, the PFIF had to
pay Microsoft 10,000 Euros.
A 2007 Samba Team press release on the agreement said:
After paying Microsoft a one-time sum of 10,000
Euros, the PFIF will make available to the Samba Team under
non-disclosure terms the documentation needed for implementation of all
of the workgroup server protocols covered by the EU decision. Although
the documentation itself will be held in confidence by the PFIF and
Samba Team engineers, the agreement allows the publication of the
source code of the implementation of these protocols without any
further restrictions.
So the cooperation, though forced, goes back some years. In a post on the Samba site, Chris Hertel, a member of the Samba team, said:
“A few years back, a patch submission from coders
at Microsoft would have been amazing to the point of unthinkable, but
the battles are mostly over and times have changed. We still disagree
on some things such as the role of software patents in preventing the
creation of innovative software; but Microsoft is now at the forefront
of efforts to build a stronger community and improve interoperability
in the SMB world.
“Most people didn't even notice the source of the
contribution. That's how far things have come in the past four-ish
years. ...but some of us saw this as a milestone, and wanted to make a
point of expressing our appreciation for the patch and the changes we
have seen.”
As Hertel notes, four years ago this would have been a big deal. Today it was so significant that Microsoft put an intern on it.
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