That's right, you heard it!  Scott Guthrie and Scott Hanselman have both talked about it (Scott even has a podcast on it).  Microsoft will release the source code & debug symbols for debugging purposes for the following .NET libraries under the Microsoft Reference License (MS-RL):

  • Base Class Libraries
  • ASP.NET
  • Windows Forms
  • ADO.NET
  • XML
  • WPF

They plan on adding more libraries in the months to come, such as WCF, Workflow, LINQ.

I'm not sure about you, but this IS HUGE!  Way to go, MS!  Taking a step in the right direction to aide both developers, vendors and partners.  To me this release of the code just make the platform a lot strong for adoption by removing some barriers/hesitations people might have with .NET as product.

I wonder how this will affect the work the Mono guys have been doing?