Open-Source ID Project Awaits Microsoft's Blessing

An anonymous reader writes to mention that an open-source alternative to Microsoft's CardSpace tool has been on hold for months while they await patent blessing from the Redmond software giant. "While CardSpace is available on Windows, one goal of the Higgins project is to cover other operating systems. Higgins wants to offer an open-source alternative that works on Windows and on alternatives such as Linux and Mac OS X. The application would work similarly to CardSpace."

Good luck with that

[eln]

And people in Hell are waiting for ice water.

Seriously, I know Microsoft loves to talk a lot about interoperability with OSS projects, but most of it seems to be PR-driven rather than reality-driven.

Re:stop waiting, just do it

[truthsearch]

I agree. They're only promoting the use of software patents by waiting for a license. They're validating Microsoft's stance. Implement it anyway and contact the EFF and others when the lawsuit notification arrives.

Of course I'm glad I'm not them. It's easy to tell others to stand up to a wall of lawyers than to do it myself.

Re:stop waiting, just do it

[Tony Hoyle]

It's not just OSS - ego is a big problem in the commercial realm too.

If takes a lot to work on something for years then hand it over and watch someone do something *completely different* with it.

Some are never able to do that - I've worked at a place where the boss wrote the first version of the software and absolutely everything - right down to bug fixes - had to be approved by him. Then he'd go away at the weekend and rewrite half of it... badly...