
Microsoft search to be powered by open source - nreece
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10235400-16.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
======
KirinDave
I am an employee of Powerset and I can say with authority that this article is
_not_ fact checked at all. It contains some egregious errors and a geyser of
wishful thinking and baseless guesses.

As for the culture issue they're addressing, I cannot talk about what
specifically is going on with Live internals and upcoming releases, but I can
say that we actually have been surprised by how willing the MS engineers have
been to check out our infrastructure and assess it fairly. If you come into
the office you still see most of the NL research we do is still done on macs
using a lot of open source tools targeting linux, and our management is cool
with that. We've had some friction maintaining our ties to open source, but
only because these issues are complicated by an acquisition and getting used
to new rules and procedures.

In general, the vibe I get when I talk to veteran Microsofties is one of
cautious optimism about non-gpl'd open source code. And even people very high
up the MS chain have told us that open sourcing code can make financial sense,
and if it makes sense then that's what should happen.

~~~
jeroen
_It contains some egregious errors and a geyser of wishful thinking and
baseless guesses._

Which parts? The important parts of the article (Powerset using open source,
jquery inclusion in VS, MS's earlier negative stance on open source) are all
well documented.

Only MS's "keenness on consuming open-source software and embedding it into
its proprietary products" is probably exaggerated.

------
mcav
Protip: Reusing open source web browsers would be a logical next move. :)

    
    
      </wishfulthinking>

~~~
thorax
I'd prefer they just open source theirs, actually. I like having more browser
choices, but it'd be nice to see them open up more..

------
drawkbox
At a minimum, even if it is a trick, this is good strategic thinking going on
in that team. I like anything that spreads the use of distributed databases
and having another BigTable implementation is great.

As mentioned, it would be great if they started using Webkit or open source
browser rendering engines.

------
iamcalledrob
Well, if the technology makes sense, why not? There's no point in being
awkward.

