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We may think Microsoft will have to bow to the open source tide eventually in the mobile world, but so far it is only introducing openness to its model in the smallest measures. One of those was adopted this week, as the Windows giant released, and open sourced, its .Net Micro development framework for small devices.

Peter Galli, who rejoices in the role of senior open source community manager at Microsoft, wrote on his blog: "While the license will allow customers to take the code and make specialized versions to fit their needs, customers told us they wanted Microsoft to stay involved to avoid any possible fragmentation of the platform."

Under the open moves, developers can access sourcecode for the base class libraries and CLR (Common Language Runtime) code. The libraries contain communications functionality for managed apps, and system functions like user interface. The TCP/IP stack is excluded because it is third party software (from EBSNet).

Analyst Stephen O'Grady of RedMonk told InfoWorld: "It's an interesting decision on Microsoft's part and one that seems to acknowledge the benefits of open source in terms of visibility and distribution. That said, the lack of an included TCP/IP library is likely to throttle interest, because even the resource-constrained devices that are the targets must function in a network context."

Microsoft aims to enhance the framework further using a team of outsiders alongside its own employees, and to create a community around it to guide future direction.

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