Microsoft has made one of its most direct overtures to the open-source software community to date, in the form of an invitation to Michael Tiemann, president of the Open Source Initiative (OSI), to begin a "productive conversation." Tiemann, who is also vice president for open-source affairs at Linux distributor Red Hat, said Microsoft had contacted him as president of OSI in order to open up a top-level dialogue, according to a report in industry journal eWeek.
He said the OSI would take the offer at face value, according to the report. Tiemann has exchanged emails with the company but has not yet met anyone. Tiemann would be most likely to meet with Brad Smith, Microsoft"s general counsel, who has been involved in attempting to ease relations with the open source world. Red Hat could not immediately confirm the report. The move represents part of Microsoft"s latest effort in dealing with the growing popularity of open-source or "free" software, which makes source code available to anyone and isn"t controlled by any single company.