Microsoft Open Sources F#

Microsoft's Don Syme has announced the release of the F# compiler source code as a code drop under Apache 2.0 license.


Microsoft Open Sources F#
Don Syme, a Principal Researcher for Microsoft and currently involved in designing and implementing F#, has announced the release of the F# compiler and core library source code under the Apache 2.0 license. The code comes as a code drop included with other tools and libraries contained by the F# Power Pack and hosted on CodePlex.

The source code of the compiler was already available with previous F# releases but under Microsoft Research Shared Source License Agreement, allowing users to create derivative works but only for non-commercial purposes.

The important change is that the source code is now under Apache 2.0, allowing commercial use of the software. But since it is a code drop, the users won’t have access to the main trunk, so they cannot enhance it, fix it, determine its future. Microsoft will continue to exercise full control over their releases. [Read full report at InfoQ]