I’m sure most of you have heard about the new Windows Store that Microsoft are looking to launch alongside its newest operating system – Windows 8. Last week Microsoft gave us a look at the new Windows 8 Store and along with that they started a new contest for the developers who want their apps to be featured first when the Store is officially released alongside Windows 8 some time next year.
We also discovered that Microsoft will have the ability to remotely delete apps from your PC, but now something new has been spotted in the ULA. Microsoft have decided that they will also allow open source apps onto their market. This is a big win for the open source movement.
The section that we’re looking at clearly states that apps released under a license from the Open Source Initiative (GPL, Apache, etc.) will have permission to be distributed via the Windows Store. What’s more it also says that the OSI license will trump the Microsoft Standard Application License Terms, namely the the restriction on sharing applications.
Windows 8 Store To Allow Open Source Apps