Socially|Mundane

It was only a matter of time that Microsoft would want to stick its hand into the Second Life/Open Sim phenominon. Okay, they are the ones we love to hate to love to hate, but let's face it: Microsoft's jump into the foray can only be a good thing. At least with adoption and mainstreaming of the Second Life paradigm.

Virtual worlds are in abundance now and it is quickly turning into a huge money-maker for those companies becoming involved behind the scenes in some way. According to Reuters, Microsoft is looking to help 'standardize' some of the functions regarding virtual worlds and how the many separate grids will keep track of you.

Now, there are only two possible reasons for Microsoft's jump into this fray: they are piss-poorly behind in anything Internet and throwing money into a black hole and there really isn't anything profitable for them as of yet. However, they have the deep pockets to keep at it. They are looking for a way to turn around their online efforts, hence the attempt to buy-out, or at least buy into Yahoo!.

The second has to do with licensing and making real money. yes, they will release their contribution in open source, however, Microsoft will make it magically work the easiest with their products, such a Microsoft SQL Server, et al.

In the end, Microsoft will hope to piggyback sales of their enterprise products on the loss-leader of open-source contributions. I see nothing wrong with this at all and it's good business practice.

Source: Reuters/Second Life
"Zain Naboulsi, a “developer/evangelist” at Microsoft looking closely at OpenSim, said the company seeks to integrate at least three of its free services into the evolving open source package: coding tool C Sharp Express; SQL server express, Microsoft’s database platform to handle OpenSim’s inventory calls; and Windows Live ID, a identity-management tool."