Headlines scream.

Microsoft now open source company!

OK, I’m exaggerating a bit here.  Apparently a Microsoft employee got permission to release an XML based tool for automating the creation of MSI files   I saw this first on Chris Sell’s MSDN blog.  The story then makes the rounds to several online journalists and finally comes to Scobles attention.  Scoble asks the question - “is this as significant as I think it is?”  What do you think? Feedster.com is jumping with people talking about this.  Apparently this is big news.

It’s an interesting if simple story by itself but put ‘open source’ and Microsoft in the same sentence and it is guaranteed to make bigger headlines.

I suggest reading Rob Mensching’s blog before tuning in to all the hype. He’s the guy that has been working on WiX for the last four and half years.  Listen to him tell the brief story about getting Microsoft approval for releasing this code under a non Microsoft license. 

My question:  how many other utilities and developer tools does Microsoft have floating around the Microsoft campus that might be released under a similar license?