Microsoft invites Firefox devs to Redmond

Yes, you read the title right, Microsoft has invited the Firefox development team to the mighty Redmond HQ. What you may be surprised to find out is that there were no concurrent Microsoft requisitions placed for boiling oil, rope, or a truck to haul the bodies out the back. No, believe it or not, this is a good thing.

Microsoft is yet again extending its open-source arms for a big group hug. The invite that Microsoft extended to the FF devs is to get them up to speed with Vista's code, in a four-day intensive session with the MS Open-source team. Apparently, Microsoft is so serious about its new open-source position that it wants to make sure Firefox is ready to run on Vista perfectly.

Sam Ramji, Director of Open-Source Software for Microsoft, posted the invite publicly in the Mozilla.dev.planning newsgroup. MS has previously regarded the ISV lab as something that only commercial software writers were even allowed to see, which left open-source writers out in the cold. But now, Ramji wants to change that.

"As part of my mission as an advocate for open source applications on
Windows, I've gotten spaces set aside at the Windows Vista Readiness
ISV Lab," he said in the posting. "In the past the company has only invited commercial software developers to these labs. I'm committed to evolving our thinking beyond commercial companies to include open source projects, so I went to the non-trivial effort of getting slots for non-commercial open source projects."

The invite was intended for Mike Schroepfer, the lead of FF development at the Mozilla Foundation. Though it has not been confirmed, someone using the name of Mike Schroepfer did respond, stating that his team would be in touch to make arrangements.

Whether the actual event happens or not, at the very least it has to be acknowledged that MS is really trying to take this open-source movement seriously. Kudos, MS!

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