Microsoft shocks the developer community by open sourcing some of their crown .Net jewels. Mike and Chris discuss the ramifications for Java, and the overall strategy Microsoft could be shifting too. Plus why the return of the Start Menu is a massive middle finger to devs, and other interesting bits from Build 2014.

Plus your follow up on Oculus VR, the Blame Game, and more!

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• Ok I just thought I would interject my personal reasons why I was pissed at Oculus

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Dev Tool:

• Zed: The Next Phase | Zed

So, I’m going to try something radical. As of today, I’m making Zed my day-time job.

I’ve launched a company to further develop Zed, with the goal to, over time, earn enough money on it to support me and my family, and to continue developing Zed into something great.

While an obvious option to make Zed profitable would be to make it proprietary and sell licenses, I won’t be doing that. I think there’s a lot of value for users in the fact that their editor is open source, in terms of hackability and longevity. Also, since I’m a company of one — for the foreseeable future — I think the best way to compete is if when the community helps out with enhancement and bug fixes, as it does already. So, Zed will remain open source.

Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President of Cloud and Enterprise, announced the decision today is part of a broader initiative called .NET Foundation, the company’s move to open source multiple .NET components. T

Dev Hoopla: Build 2014

Microsoft open sources .NET compiler platform “Roslyn” and announces open source .NET Foundation initiative

At its Build 2014 conference today, Microsoft announced it is open sourcing its .NET compiler platform “Roslyn” – and then did exactly that, live on stage. Microsoft’s Anders Hejlsberg hit the button to make the project public on Codeplex.

For those who don’t know, Roslyn is a set of APIs for exposing the Microsoft C# and Visual Basic .NET compilers as services available at runtime. It includes versions of the C# and VB.NET compilers written in the languages themselves; in other words, the compilers are available via the traditional command-line programs, as well as APIs available natively from within .NET code.

Mobile-tool maker Xamarin, with whom Microsoft was partnering (rather than fighting/fearing, as some inside the company did initially) was a key advisor, Somasegar said. Some inside Microsoft were initially leery of Xamarin\’s goal to help .Net developers write apps that worked on Android and iOS because those platforms competed with Windows. But over time, Microsoft became more friend than foe to Xamarin — so much so that rumors are continuing to swirl that Microsoft may be negotiating to buy Xamarin.

Microsoft\’s open sourcing of .Net: The back story

Soma Somasegar, the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft\’s Developer Division, told me during an interview at Build 2014 last week that the work around open-sourcing more of .Net began three years ago.

Windows will be free on phones, small tablets and the Internet of Things

The company has announced that Windows will be free for hardware makers to use on phones, tablets with screens under nine inches and Internet of Things devices.

Microsoft is bringing the Start Menu back

Microsoft announced a new Start Menu that looks like a hybrid of the best of Windows 7 and Windows 8. It\’s around the same size as the Windows 7 menu, but also features miniature Live Tiles along one side.

Microsoft also showed a new mode that allows modern Windows 8 apps to run in the desktop environment inside their own windows.