The rules say “free tools only”. Can we use tools from Microsoft or any other vendor (non open source) that are available on their web site for public download?
The intent was to limit the use of commercial tools or the ability of one team to “buy” an advantage by using commercial products, not to limit things to open source tools only. The only tool restrictions are either the tool must be “free” ie open source or available to anyone for download for free (so every team would have a chance to obtain it) or it must have been written by one of the team members (for example, if you had a team member that wrote a really good log parser in Perl).
Related Questions
- Microsoft has charged that Linux and open source violate 235 Microsoft patents but these patents have never been disclosed in public. Which patents Microsoft is talking about?
- The rules say "free tools only". Can we use tools from Microsoft or any other vendor (non open source) that are available on their web site for public download?
- How is the evolution of Web site development and publishing tools such as Microsoft FrontPage influencing this trend?