Treating 'Open Source' like a trash can or a wastebasket

Summary: Microsoft is hoping to achieve/get some positive karma (the openwashing effect) by putting a Windows tool that has essentially been abandoned (or made obsolete) in the 'Open Source' domain

Using "Abandoned Software" (AS) to label Microsoft "Open Source" (OS) isn't a novel concept. It has been done by Microsoft before, even if the "OS" part too was altogether bogus (look but do not touch).

Microsoft appears to be pulling that card again, labelling Windows Live Writer (yes, remember "Live"? And it's a Windows-only tool!) "Open Source". As one site put it: "It is not updated regularly; the last update we ever saw for the device was back in 2012. Microsoft has not updated it since. Although there are users you [sic] are loyal and used the app religiously. Last month the live posts to Google’s Blogger platform stopped and it was then that it became vocal."

Here is how IDG put it:

Microsoft will breathe life into Windows Live Writer by open sourcing the eight-year-old blog-publishing tool, a company manager said earlier this week.

What next? Making "KIN" and/or "Zune" something open-ish? If that's the best Microsoft can do, then it is clearly too stubborn to ever leave the proprietary addiction. More openwashing of Microsoft this month is part of a familiar PR recipe... ⬆