Microsoft Corp. yesterday announced the expansion of its
Shared Source Initiative (SSI) Windows source code licensing program to seven additional countries in the European Union. The Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows CE and Windows Server(TM) 2003 shared source programs will be made available to eligible enterprises, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), systems integrators, Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) and academic institutions in Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia. Launched in May 2001 and now encompassing 17 unique code-sharing programs for various Microsoft technologies, the Shared Source Initiative is how Microsoft is sharing source code with customers, governments, partners, academics and individuals worldwide.
The continued growth of the SSI represents Microsoft's commitment to increasing the transparency of its source code and enabling those who would benefit from code access to build on Microsoft innovations.
"Transparency leads to greater trust and opportunity," said Jason Matusow, director of the Shared Source Initiative at Microsoft. "Over the past four years we have constantly looked for ways to expand the Shared Source Initiative -- across technologies, licence types and geographies to better listen to what our customers and partners are asking of us. Expanding the Windows source code access programmes to the whole of the EU is another important step in this process."
Microsoft began sharing Windows source code with academic institutions in 1991, and in 2001 the Shared Source Initiative was established to address broader customer interest and formalise a program that allows access to a spectrum of Microsoft technologies ranging from Microsoft .NET technologies to embedded operating systems. Over the past four years, the Shared Source Initiative has grown to include more development and infrastructure technologies, most of which are licensed to allow developers to see, modify and redistribute changes to the source code.
