Microsoft delays new policy to ban commercial open source apps on its store

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After facing backlash from the developer community, tech giant Microsoft has now decided to delay the enforcement of fits new policy that was set to go into effect from July 16. The policy would ban commercial open source applications, which in turn had developers worried about the future of their projects.

In its new Microsoft Store policy, the company had said that developers must not attempt to profit from open-source or other software that is otherwise generally available for free, nor be priced irrationally high relative to the features and functionality provided by your product.

The announcement irked the developer community as it would hamper their efforts to monetise open source software.

Now, Giorgio Sardo who is general manager Apps, Partners and Store at Microsoft has said that the company is delaying this particular policy.

"In listening to the dev community, we got feedback that it could be perceived differently than intended. We'll delay enforcement of that policy until we clarify the intent," Sardo said in a tweet.

The policy change was first announced on June 16.

Hayden Barnes, a senior engineering manager at open source software giant Suse, tweeted that he was disappointed with the proposed policy change.

"I am disappointed by the @MicrosoftStore policy change that prohibits selling open source software. The Store provides independent open source developers an opportunity to create sustainable projects by charging a reasonable amount there," he had posted.

There are several examples of open source software sold in Microsoft's app store such as video editing software Shotcut and FTP clients such as WinSCP.

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