Comments for Microsoft Releases Open Source Blogging Platform

Microsoft Releases Open Source Blogging Platform

2008-12-09T18:30:00Z

Today, Microsoft released an alpha version of its own open source content management system, Oxite. The source code for the software is available under the Microsoft Public License. While Microsoft mostly describes Oxite as a blogging platform, the Oxite team also points out that you could use it as a content management system to develop more or less any type of site. Oxite currently powers Microsoft's own Mix Online and also uses some recycled parts from Channel 9 .

]]> Some of the major features of the software include support for Gravatars, pingbacks, trackbacks, RSS feeds, commenting, and the MetaWebLog API (so you can use your favorite blogging client to post to your Oxite blog directly).

ASP.NET

The major roadblock for a lot of potential users, however, is that Oxite is an ASP.NET application, and most standard hosting services run Linux servers, which can not run ASP.NET. This, of course, makes sense, given that Oxite is also meant to be a demo for the ASP.NET MVC framework, but it will surely disappoint a lot of users.

Channel 9 has a short interview with the developers that describes some more of the software's features and the history of its development.

Given that Microsoft uses Oxite to run its own Mix Online site on top of Oxite, it must surely be a stable and powerful platform, especially for sites with multiple blogs.

However, it definitely would be too early to say that Microsoft is competing with Wordpress, Typepad, Drupal, or Joomla. There still seem to be a lot of missing pieces and we are not even sure yet if Oxite features an extension architecture that third-party developers would be able to develop for. However, it's nice to see Microsoft release this project under an open source license, even if it is at least partly for self-serving reasons.

Comment from timbuktu on 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T18:36:39Z

i think i should try this one too cause i'm already using blog

Comment from timbuktu on 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T18:37:53Z

http://romapalozine.blogspot.com is my blog adress tell me should i try microsoft's blog instead of it???

Comment from Todd on 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T18:43:24Z

lol - ASP.NET is not "open". Classic Dark Side double speak.

Comment from grantmichaels on 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T18:50:14Z

Oxite or Oxide. The pictures say Oxite and the article says Oxide. Just FYI.

Comment from Jeffrey on 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T18:51:28Z

"most standard hosting services run Linux servers"

Sure, but that misses the point. Consumers aren't the target audience for this. Like all of Microsoft's web development offerings, the target audience for this is businesses and intranets.

Comment from Steve G. on 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T19:07:42Z

@4: Apparently, editing is a bit off on the Web today. Other places have had some awful proofing as well.

Comment from JIltedCitizen on 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T19:17:45Z

There are plenty of Open Source .NET blogging software. Dasblog, Blog.NET, and Subtext are the notable ones. All very good. I have windows hosting for a good price comparable to linux hosting. And I don't have to run anything on that awful thing called PHP.

Comment from Frederic Lardinois on 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T19:22:08Z

@4 been reading too many chemistry papers lately - it's fixed now :)

Comment from Tony on 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T19:38:27Z

I took the time to watch the video, but it seems pretty disappointing. Just the basic features of all blog software, but pretty immature all and all. My guess is that the only reason this is getting any press is because is has the Microsoft label tagged on it. At least Google has their internal review process for new apps, that requires a certain number of internal users before they're released live to the world. This raising the bar on google apps, and if nothing else, ensures that they're all somewhat interesting. Microsoft should think about implementing the same approach, but if so, my guess it this wouldn't have made it into the real world.

Comment from Adam Singer on 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T19:58:36Z

WHY would you use any blog software except Wordpress? Makes no sense. It's like handicapping yourself before you've even started.

If you can get the gold standard, FREE - why would you not? There is a HUGE developer community consistently making it better. Seems like a "me too" thing...MS can't hope to succeed when Wordpress (or even TypePad and blogger) dominate.

Comment from Vassil R Mladjov on 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T20:11:49Z

This is some kind of a joke, right? I don't get it at all.
Who in the world (other than MSFT) would want to use this?
Have you guys wantsh the video, this should be on AFV :)

Comment from John Rockefeller on 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T20:24:32Z

Another case if Not Invented Here(tm). Microsoft has always had this problem... The first thing I thought was 'instead of developing a completely new system, why not use your heavy dollars to help build what has already been done with wordpress?'

Comment from BW on 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T21:33:06Z

"The major roadblock for a lot of potential users, however, is that Oxite is an ASP.NET application, and most standard hosting services run Linux servers, which can not run ASP.NET."

I don't know if the scores of people using DotNetNuke (another open source application popular with the ASP.NET crowd) - or the many hosting companies offering and advertising DNN-specific hosting packages - would agree with that statement.

Comment from Jason Gaylord on 2008-12-09

2008-12-09T22:06:08Z

"The major roadblock for a lot of potential users, however, is that Oxite is an ASP.NET application, and most standard hosting services run Linux servers, which can not run ASP.NET."

Actually, ASP.NET can be run on Linux servers. Novell is heading a project called The Mono Project. It runs on quite a few different platforms and is the .NET Framework - http://www.mono-project.com/

The project is not *supposed* to be an end product. This is moreless an ASP.NET Blog Starter Kit that demonstrates some of the latest Microsoft technologies including ASP.NET MVC.

Comment from Lonn on 2008-12-10

2008-12-10T13:35:40Z

Great, all we need is another Microsoft product that does what has already been done by others; and others have done it better.

It would be nice if we could get something out of Redmond that was new, unique, and benificial.

Comment from Ron Peled on 2008-12-10

2008-12-10T18:09:57Z

This is an interesting move since Microsoft have used Community Server (telligent) religiously over the last 4-5 years for their events and blogging platforms.

Although too early to judge, but this may begin to compete with Sitefinity and GraffitiCMS, I wonder what the respected companies think of this.

Comment from MGA on 2008-12-11

2008-12-12T00:15:36Z

who wants to pay extra money to his/her hosting company to get ASP support: NOBODY!

Comment from Florians Blog on 2008-12-15

2008-12-15T17:43:49Z

Just another copy --> paste product of Microsoft...

Comment from Gay Budapest on 2008-12-15

2008-12-15T19:20:42Z

Not too late?

Comment from Szállás Budapest on 2008-12-15

2008-12-15T19:30:10Z

At least it is open source product from MS.