Microsoft is reportedly lifting the restriction on the sale of open source software in its app store, according to Techradar . The decision generated a great deal of debate in the open source community and forced Microsoft to reverse its course.
According to some sources, Microsoft changed several of its app store policies two weeks ago. The modification was made to provide the business better control over the released apps. But enforcing a restriction on the sale of open source software quickly turned into a major issue for the business. Microsoft intended to put the new regulations into effect on July 16. Giorgio Sardo, the general manager of the Microsoft Store, claimed that the developers’ objections were the reason for the rollout’s delay.
Microsoft has completely given up on the idea and won’t put any restrictions on the sale of open source software in its app store. Giorgio Sardo announced the information on his Twitter and made it clear that the business is formally lifting the embargo.
Advertisement In order to better safeguard users against deceptive product listings, we released a few improvements to the Microsoft Store regulations last month. According to your input, we changed policy 10.8.7 and 11.2 today, Sardo said.
Microsoft wanted to combat con artists who packaged open-source apps for profit by outlawing the sale of open-source software. This action, nevertheless, might also harm the honest developers who were putting up great effort to create open-source applications for users.
Following developers’ objection, Microsoft decided to keep open-source software in its app store. Sardo went on: We deleted the earlier reference to open source pricing in order to make our intentions clear. We are dedicated to creating an open store that gives developers freedom of choice.
Advertisement The Microsoft Store General Manager also requests that consumers contact the business with any concerns they may have regarding an app’s intellectual property.
Good news for the community is the lifting of the restriction on the sale of open-source software. Microsoft is also abandoning support for browser engines, though. According to the company’s notice, it only longer offers support for the Gecko and Chromium browser engines. Microsoft no longer offers support for other engines, such as the WebKit from Apple.
