Open source underlying MSN?
Could open-source tools be behind Microsoft's own MSN service?
An image posted online indicates that some of Microsoft's own developers apparently prefer open-source products to build Web pages than Microsoft's own proprietary software.
The image shows an error message generated from Microsoft's online MSN service in Brazil. The message, saying the MSN site is overloaded, indicates that it was written using the open-source scripting language PHP and that the database behind it is MySQL, another open-source product.
Certainly, those MSN Brazil developers are not alone in their fondness for PHP and MySQL. Those two tools are ingredients of the popular "LAMP stack" of Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.
But given that Microsoft fights tooth and nail against nearly all things open source, perhaps those same programmers had best keep their tool choice to themselves.
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin.
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