Microsoft will make its “Shared Source” embedded OS license much less restrictive, starting with the July release of Windows CE 5.0, according to an article at WindowsForDevices.com. The new license will likely increase Microsoft's share of the roughly $1B embedded OS market, the article says.

The biggest change is that all shared source program participants will be able to ship commercial products based on modified versions of Windows CE without being required to “contribute” their changes back to Microsoft. This change makes Microsoft's new shared source license more like the BSD license, and less like the GNU GPL, according to the article.

Additionally, the program is no longer restricted to companies that have purchased large quantities of CE licenses within the previous year, and geographic restrictions have also been removed.

Learn more about Microsoft's new shared shared source licensing strategy by reading the full article at WindowsForDevices.com.

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