• Sidebar: The Microsoft Code Center Premium Program

Microsoft will make Windows source code available to about 150 systems integrators through a new Systems Integrator Source Licensing Program (SISLP). The new program is primarily intended to help systems integrators debug their Windows programs. But it also marks the latest in a series of steps to gradually make Windows source code available to a wider circle of partners, which helps Microsoft improve its software and appeal to developers who are attracted to competing software (such as Linux and Apache) for which full source code is available.

Largest Partners Get Operating System Code

The SISLP covers the Home, Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter versions of Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows .NET Server, including x86 and IA64 builds for Windows XP, plus all betas and service packs.

The code is delivered on CD-ROM, DVD, or through the Microsoft Code Center Premium (CCP) program, which provides a secure Web site. (For more information about CCP, see the sidebar "The Microsoft Code Center Premium Program".)

Approximately 95% of Windows source code is available. Among the missing pieces are code modules for certain security components, such as Windows Product Activation, a new antipiracy technology showing up in Microsoft’s operating systems and applications.

Licensees can read, compile, and debug the source code, but they may not modify it.

To qualify for the SISLP, systems integrators must be Gold Certified Partners (members of its Certified Partner program who have met stringent requirements for staff training and customer satisfaction) or must have installed Windows on at least 1,500 PCs and have a Premier support agreement with Microsoft. Microsoft estimates that about 150 integrators will qualify for the program, including Accenture, Avanade, Cap Gemini, Compaq, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Benefits, Dangers for Integrators

Revealing Windows source code poses only a small downside to Microsoft and offers significant benefits to integrators.

The most significant benefit is faster problem resolution in software development. Bugs are often caused by complex interactions between application code and the operating system. By stepping through Windows source code when a Windows-based programming project hits a roadblock, developers can isolate a problem to Microsoft’s code or their own.

"This is a troubleshooting tool of last resort," says Ashish Kumar, chief technical officer at Avanade. "We would go through source code in those cases where we’re scratching our heads, and we don’t think there’s a problem with our app or with the hardware."

However, integrators should not adapt their code too tightly to Microsoft's. Although Microsoft stands behind the functionality of its APIs and goes to great lengths to ensure that they operate the same way over several versions of an operating system, behavior that's only visible in the source code (including bugs) and is not documented in the APIs can change between releases and differ across platforms. So an integrator that changes its application based on Windows source code, whether to work around a bug or to speed performance, could find that the code breaks on a new version of Windows.

Part of a Larger Trend

The new program extends source code access from large enterprise customers (who already have access through the Enterprise Source Licensing program announced in 2001) to the systems integrators that develop many enterprise applications. It also marks the latest in a series of steps to gradually make Windows source code available to a wider circle of partners.

The company’s source code has been available to very close partners for several years. Companies such as Citrix Systems, which built the original terminal services for Windows NT, had access to NT source code in the mid-1990s, but those were special agreements and not part of any formalized program. OEMs have long had access to source code for testing and debugging hardware, and in recent years Microsoft has extended source code access—under the flag of the Shared Source Initiative (SSI)—to large enterprises, embedded systems builders, governments, and academics.

Opening its source code to outside partners has clear benefits to Microsoft as well as to its partners. The best-known benefit is often cited by the open-source movement as one reason that open-source software (such as Linux and Apache) is superior: the more eyes that review the code, the better it will be. Although Microsoft will never release the Windows source code to the general public as an open-source product, applying the talents of skilled programmers from partner companies is likely to result in better Microsoft code.

Another major benefit for Microsoft is likely to be more satisfied developers. Developer satisfaction with Microsoft has slowly been declining, and Microsoft has looked enviously at the energetic developer communities that have formed around open-source programs.

Wider access to Windows source code not only helps Microsoft respond to the perceived superiority of the open-source model among developers but it will also allow developers to bypass the time-consuming and often frustrating process of getting answers from Microsoft about how its code works.

Availability and Resources

The Shared Source Initiative is described at www.microsoft.com/licensing/sharedsource/.

The source licensing program for enterprises is described in "Enterprise Source Licensing Program Expanded" on page 11 of the May 2001 Update.

Information about Microsoft’s Certified Partner program is at www.microsoft.com/partner/partnering/howtopartner/.