Microsoft Releases Source to .NET Framework Core

In an attempt to improve its appeal among the academic community, Microsoft on Wednesday released the Shared Source CLI, a beta implementation of the ECMA standard on which the .NET Framework is based. Code-named "Rotor," the almost 1.9 million lines of source code constitutes the internal workings of the .NET Framework, and has been released with developers and academia in mind. Although the code may not be redistributed for commercial purposes, students and teachers are encouraged to explore and modify Rotor.

"The academic community plays a critical role in the software ecosystem as the launching pad for the next generation of developers," said Microsoft's senior vice president of the Developer Platform and Evangelism Division Eric Rudder. "Academia has delivered many breakthrough innovations through pure research. With the Shared Source CLI implementation, we hope to see great innovation around .NET technology."

With Web services around the corner, the Shared Source CLI will allow developers to see inside .NET, examining garbage collection, JIT compilation, security protocols, and more. Researchers working with advanced compiler technologies are also urged to tinker with the code.

Microsoft first announced a partnership with Corel to develop its C# and CLI development tools for FreeBSD last year, with plans to release them under its Shared Source license. As expected, Rotor will compile and run on Windows XP and FreeBSD 4.5 - not Linux. Microsoft's Shared Source push came after heated battles with advocates of the open source movement, which has pitted Linux as the antithesis of the Redmond giant.

Microsoft has denied current intentions to port the .NET Framework to Linux, however a Corel executive inadvertently told BetaNews at last October's Windows XP launch that a Linux port was indeed in the works, but declined to give any additional details once the cat was out of the bag.

Long time open source advocate Tim O'Reilly supports Microsoft's latest move, which he calls a "bold experiment." "It enables the academic community to study the code and share its ideas (even if they can't use it verbatim for commercial use). We need more experiments such as this to understand what's science and what's religion when it comes to the effectiveness of different types of software licensing in spurring innovation," he said.

The O'Reilly Network has posted a wealth of information for those interested in exploring Rotor, including a full installation tutorial. While only 80 megabytes uncompressed, the Shared Source CLI requires up to 1GB of disk space after compilation. The 11MB compressed download is available on MSDN and via FileForum. Corel has also posted a mirror of the beta release.

"As a member of the Rotor development team at Microsoft, I invite everyone to download this code, poke around, and have fun with it. The CLI standard will be important for years to come, and there is no better way to understand it fully than browsing and building these sources," said Microsoft's David Stutz. "The possibilities here are very broad—please share your ideas and results with us!"