Microsoft says it wants to encourage open-source application development for Windows. With that goal in mind, it is launching CoApp, a new platform that will make it easier for developers to get current binaries, compilers and libraries.
“The biggest challenge to using/building/maintaining many Open Source applications on Windows, is that Windows does a lot of things differently than Linux and Unix . Different filesystems, command lines, APIs, user experiences … well, pretty much everything,” explains Microsoft’s Garrett Serack. “Clearly there is a strong need for a package management system, along the same lines as apt, rpm, synaptic (and others) but built for the Windows platform, and compatible with Windows features.”
