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SAN DIEGO, California -- It's a rare thing to attend a computing conference where something actually happens -- where, instead of people waxing profound on the possibilities of this technology or that (in between coffee breaks), you get a surprise announcement that's certain to shake up the world as we know it.
But there's a sense here this week that this conference -- the O'Reilly Open Source Convention -- might be one of those that amounts to something: Minds will be changed. People will see the light. The world will be better after this.
OK, that's exaggerating things a bit. But honestly, there are people at O'Reilly -- the conference company headed by open source-proselytizer Tim O'Reilly -- saying that Microsoft's decision to participate in the program here is a truly remarkable thing, and that, with enough community effort, events like this may yet turn on the software giant to the charms of open-source programming.
Nobody's suggesting that this week will be enough to do it. But Nathan Torkington, co-author with O'Reilly of Perl Cookbook and the "content planner" for this conference, said that "there are good people at Microsoft -- people who see what we are saying about open source. We want to make them a bit stronger, try to engage them." He paused a bit, smiled, and then added: "It's a bit like China-U.S. policy."
The open source-Microsoft détente this week comes in the form of a debate on Thursday between Craig Mundie, Microsoft's executive charged with promoting its "shared-source" approach to software, and Michael Tiemann, Red Hat's chief technical officer.
For a while now, there has been a public argument between Microsoft and open-source developers regarding the intelligence of releasing open code into a business environment. Predictably, Microsoft has said it's not a smart thing to do -- execs say companies that release software under the GNU General Public License (GPL) risk losing their intellectual property.
For example, here's what Jim Allchin, the head of Windows, told Bloomberg in February: "I'm an American, I believe in the American Way. I worry if the government encourages open source, and I don't think we've done enough education of policymakers to understand the threat."
Hopefully, said O'Reilly's Torkington, Microsoft's Mundie will be more clear about what the company is trying to accomplish with its suggestions that open source is bad for business. "People want to know, 'Why is Microsoft saying bad things about us?'"
The other big Microsoft event will occur Wednesday, when Microsoft's David Stutz will describe the company's efforts to build a shared-source version of the Common Language Interface, which is a key part of its .Net programming initiative. And right after he speaks, Miguel de Icaza, the chief technologist of Ximian, will describe Mono, an open-source version of the Common Language Interface.
That kind of scheduling will make it easier to compare and contrast the two approaches, the folks at O'Reilly say.
And how will the audience respond to this kind of needling?
"I think they can be relied upon to be pretty mature," Torkington said. "The key for this is going to be how much (the Microsoft representatives) say. At least here we can press them for answers."
Of course, not everything here will be about Microsoft. This is an open-source shindig, after all, and there will be a lot of very technical tracks meant to address the unspeakable lusts of all those guys who just can't get enough Perl.
But there looks to be some fun for the non-techie folks as well. There are some cool-sounding "emerging topics" sessions that have to do with applying open-source ideals to worlds beyond programming: "Open-Source Bioinformatics," "Perl in Cancer Research," that kind of thing.
And if all that fails, at least the weather's nice.
