FLOSS Weekly Episode 834: It Was Cool In 2006

Note: This article is an editorial-style synthesis based on publicly available information about FLOSS Weekly Episode 834 and the real open-source developments discussed around the episode, including Microsoft Edit, Windows Subsystem for Linux, GitHub Copilot, Redis, and the broader evolution of free and open-source software.

Introduction: When 2006 Calls, Open Source Answers

“It was cool in 2006” sounds like something you might say about frosted tips, transparent iMacs, or the intense confidence of wearing cargo shorts with twelve pockets and using exactly three of them. But in FLOSS Weekly Episode 834: It Was Cool In 2006, the phrase lands with a wink and a surprising amount of technical weight. The episode, hosted by Jonathan Bennett with guests Ben Meadors and Rob Campbell, looks at Microsoft’s latest open-source moves and asks the question every longtime software watcher quietly keeps in their back pocket: what exactly is Microsoft doing here?

The short answer is that Microsoft has released, opened, or promised to open more developer-focused software, including the new Edit command-line text editor, the Windows Subsystem for Linux, and Copilot-related capabilities in Visual Studio Code. The longer answer is more interesting. It involves nostalgia, developer trust, cloud strategy, licensing debates, and the strange reality that the company once treated Linux like an invasive weed but now ships tools designed for people who live in terminals.

FLOSS Weekly has always been a great place for these conversations because the show is not just about software that happens to be free. It is about the culture, incentives, governance, and practical tradeoffs behind Free Libre Open Source Software. Episode 834 fits that tradition neatly. It is part news discussion, part industry analysis, and part “remember when this would have sounded impossible?” group therapy session.

What Is FLOSS Weekly Episode 834 About?

At its center, FLOSS Weekly Episode 834 examines Microsoft’s newest wave of open-source announcements and what they mean for developers. The episode focuses heavily on Microsoft’s decision to open source several tools that sit close to the daily developer workflow. That matters because developers do not judge openness by press releases alone. They judge it by whether they can inspect code, file issues, build the project, submit patches, and avoid feeling like they are borrowing tools from a locked glass cabinet.

The discussion highlights Microsoft’s new Edit text editor, a small command-line editor designed for Windows. It also looks at the long-requested open sourcing of Windows Subsystem for Linux, commonly known as WSL. And because no modern developer conversation can escape artificial intelligence for more than eleven minutes, the episode also touches on GitHub Copilot, AI-assisted programming, and Microsoft’s decision to bring more Copilot Chat functionality into the open-source VS Code ecosystem.

There is also a broader thread running through the episode: open source is not just a technical release model. It is a relationship. If a company has spent years building trust, an open-source announcement can feel like an invitation. If a company has a complicated history, the same announcement can feel like a magician asking you to inspect the deck after the trick is already over.

Why the Title “It Was Cool In 2006” Works So Well

The title is funny because it pokes at nostalgia while also pointing to a deeper truth. In 2006, the open-source world looked different. FLOSS Weekly itself began in that era, when Linux desktops were still a badge of honor, Firefox was the scrappy browser hero, and “web 2.0” was said with a straight face in conference rooms.

Back then, Microsoft and open source were often framed as rivals. Many developers carried memories of the “embrace, extend, extinguish” era. Trust was low. Windows was dominant on desktops, Linux owned much of the server conversation, and cross-platform development often felt like a diplomatic incident with syntax highlighting.

Fast-forward to 2025, and the picture is delightfully weird. Microsoft owns GitHub. It ships Linux-friendly tools. It contributes to open-source projects. It runs massive cloud infrastructure where Linux is not an outsider but a major resident. It has joined major open-source organizations and released important developer tools under open licenses. If you explained this timeline to a 2006 developer, they might ask whether you also arrived in a flying car powered by Perl scripts.

The Big Microsoft Open-Source Moves Discussed

Microsoft Edit: A Tiny Editor With a Big Nostalgia Button

The most charming part of the episode is the discussion around Microsoft Edit, a new open-source command-line text editor for Windows. Edit is small, lightweight, and intentionally simple. It is designed so users can open a terminal, type edit or edit filename.txt, and make changes without launching a separate graphical program.

That sounds modest, but modest tools often matter most. A command-line editor is not glamorous. It will not appear in a Super Bowl ad. Nobody is going to whisper, “Wow, did you see that find-and-replace dialog?” But when you are working on a remote system, adjusting a configuration file, reading logs, or fixing a script, having a built-in editor can be the difference between productivity and yelling at your monitor like it owes you money.

Edit pays homage to the old MS-DOS Editor while using a more modern interface. It is modeless, which means users do not have to learn the modal behavior of editors like Vim. This is not an attack on Vim, of course. Vim is powerful, elegant, and beloved by people who know how to exit it. But Microsoft clearly wanted an editor with a gentler learning curve for everyday Windows users who need to make quick text edits in the terminal.

The practical features are exactly what you would expect from a useful everyday tool: mouse support, keybindings, word wrap, multiple-file handling, and find-and-replace with options such as match case and regular expressions. The headline is not that Edit will replace Vim, Nano, Emacs, Notepad++, or Visual Studio Code. The headline is that Windows is finally getting a built-in, open-source command-line editor for modern systems. Sometimes progress looks less like a rocket launch and more like finally putting a screwdriver in the toolbox.

WSL Goes Open Source: The Long-Awaited Answer

The Windows Subsystem for Linux is another major part of the discussion. WSL lets developers run Linux command-line tools, utilities, and applications directly on Windows without managing a traditional dual-boot setup. For years, it has been one of Microsoft’s clearest acknowledgments that modern developers do not live inside one operating system bubble.

When WSL first arrived, many developers were impressed but cautious. The tool was useful, but the question appeared almost immediately: will it be open source? That question lingered for years. Episode 834 lands at the point where Microsoft has finally made the WSL code available for community participation, with important components moving into public view.

This is significant because WSL is not a toy project. It is infrastructure. Developers use it to run Linux shells, package managers, scripting environments, containers, build tools, and modern web stacks on Windows machines. By opening the code, Microsoft gives the community more room to inspect behavior, suggest fixes, understand design decisions, and participate in the future of the platform.

There are still limits. Some WSL-related components remain tied to the Windows image and are not fully open sourced. That nuance matters. Open source is not a magic wand that instantly turns every proprietary dependency into community property. Still, the move is a major milestone. It shows that WSL has matured from “interesting compatibility layer” into a platform Microsoft is willing to develop more openly.

Copilot, VS Code, and the Open AI Development Question

The episode also looks at GitHub Copilot and AI-assisted development. Microsoft and GitHub have been pushing Copilot beyond autocomplete into agent-like workflows. Instead of merely suggesting a line of code, Copilot can now be assigned tasks, work through issues, and submit pull requests for review in certain environments.

That raises a fascinating open-source question: what parts of AI-powered development tools should be open? The model weights? The editor integration? The prompts? The extension code? The logs? The user controls? The answer depends on whom you ask, and sometimes on whether they have recently had coffee.

Microsoft’s move to open source Copilot Chat capabilities in VS Code is important because VS Code became popular partly because its core development model was relatively open and extensible. Developers want transparency in the tools that shape their work. When AI features begin reading context, suggesting changes, and acting like a junior developer with infinite confidence and no fear of breaking tests, transparency becomes even more important.

Episode 834 does not treat AI as a simple victory lap. It places Copilot in the same trust conversation as Edit and WSL. Developers may appreciate convenience, but they also care about control. The more deeply a tool enters the coding process, the more important openness, auditability, and clear boundaries become.

Microsoft and Open Source: From Suspicion to Strategy

One reason this episode is so interesting is that Microsoft’s open-source story has a long memory. The company’s modern posture did not appear overnight. It has spent years moving from hostility and skepticism toward participation and strategic dependence.

Microsoft joined the Linux Foundation as a Platinum member in 2016, a move that would have sounded surreal a decade earlier. It acquired GitHub in 2018, placing the world’s most important developer collaboration platform under the Microsoft umbrella. It has released and maintained projects such as .NET, PowerShell, Windows Terminal, PowerToys, TypeScript, and Visual Studio Code-related components. It has also made Linux central to Azure cloud workloads and developer scenarios.

But history does not vanish just because a company publishes a GitHub repository. Developers remember. Communities remember. Open source has a long institutional memory because many of its contributors are volunteers, maintainers, infrastructure operators, and people who have been burned by sudden license changes or corporate strategy pivots before.

That is why the tone of Episode 834 matters. The discussion is not merely “Microsoft did something good, hooray.” It is more like, “This is useful, this is strategic, this is welcome, and we should still ask why.” That is the healthy posture for open-source analysis. Enthusiasm and skepticism can share the same keyboard.

The Redis and Valkey Angle: Open Source Is Also About Trust

The episode’s broader context also touches the ongoing licensing conversation around Redis and Valkey. Redis changed its licensing in 2024, moving away from the permissive BSD model toward source-available licenses that many in the open-source community did not consider truly open source. The move triggered a strong response, including the creation of Valkey, a Linux Foundation-backed fork designed to preserve a BSD-licensed path for users and contributors.

In 2025, Redis added the OSI-approved AGPLv3 license for Redis 8, effectively returning an open-source option to the project. That is a meaningful change, but it also illustrates how difficult it can be to rebuild trust after a licensing shock. Open source is not only about whether code can be viewed. It is about predictable rights, governance, community voice, and confidence that today’s freedoms will not become tomorrow’s invoice.

This connects neatly to Microsoft’s announcements. Whether the company is opening Edit, WSL, or Copilot-related code, the community response depends on trust. Developers ask practical questions: Who controls the roadmap? What license applies? Can outside contributors meaningfully participate? Are there closed dependencies? Could the project direction change suddenly? Is this open source as collaboration, or open source as marketing confetti?

Why Edit Matters More Than Its File Size Suggests

Edit is small, but it represents a smart developer-experience move. Modern software development is full of enormous tools. Editors have plugin stores, AI assistants, cloud sync, remote workspaces, built-in terminals, debugging panels, and enough settings to qualify as a minor constitution. That power is wonderful until you need to fix one line in a config file and your editor begins updating twelve extensions while asking whether you want to sign in.

A tiny command-line editor serves a different purpose. It is there when you need a fast, dependable, low-friction tool. That is why the nostalgia works. The old MS-DOS Editor was not glamorous either, but people used it because it was available. In infrastructure and systems work, availability is a feature. Simplicity is a feature. Not needing to install anything while troubleshooting a production issue is very much a feature, preferably one accompanied by snacks and emotional support.

Edit also shows that Microsoft is thinking about the terminal as a serious first-class environment. Windows Terminal, PowerShell, WSL, winget, OpenSSH, and now Edit all point in the same direction: Windows wants to be a friendlier home for developers who live in command lines, shells, scripts, and cross-platform workflows.

Why WSL Being Open Source Is a Bigger Cultural Signal

WSL becoming open source is larger than a repository announcement. It is a signal that Microsoft understands developer platforms are judged by openness and interoperability. Developers want Windows to work well with Linux because real projects rarely respect tidy platform boundaries. A modern engineer might use Windows hardware, Linux containers, Python tooling, Node.js packages, Kubernetes clusters, GitHub Actions, and Azure services before lunch.

WSL makes that workflow more natural. Opening more of WSL gives developers better visibility into how the system works and gives the community a chance to influence it. That does not mean every concern disappears. Some parts remain closed, and Microsoft still makes strategic decisions based on business priorities. But the direction is clear: WSL is no longer merely a bridge Microsoft built for developers. It is becoming a more open platform developers can help shape.

What Episode 834 Says About the Future of Developer Tools

The most important takeaway from FLOSS Weekly Episode 834: It Was Cool In 2006 is that developer tools are moving toward a hybrid future. Some tools will be fully open. Some will be open core. Some will be source available. Some will expose client code while keeping hosted services closed. Some will use AI models that developers can inspect only through behavior, not through source.

That complexity means developers need sharper open-source literacy. It is no longer enough to ask, “Is it on GitHub?” A project can be on GitHub and still not provide the freedoms people expect. The better questions are: What is the license? Who owns the trademarks? Who reviews contributions? Can the community fork it? Are build instructions complete? Are key dependencies open? Is governance shared or centralized?

Episode 834 succeeds because it lives in that nuance. It recognizes that Microsoft’s open-source releases are useful and interesting while also understanding why the community keeps asking hard questions. Good open-source coverage does not clap automatically. It checks the license, reads the room, and then claps if appropriate.

Specific Examples Developers Should Watch

1. Using Edit for Quick Terminal Changes

A Windows developer working in Command Prompt, PowerShell, or Windows Terminal could use Edit to quickly modify configuration files, scripts, README files, or notes. Instead of launching a full editor, the developer can stay in the command-line flow. That is especially useful for beginners who find Vim intimidating and for experienced users who simply want a fast built-in tool.

2. Building Cross-Platform Projects With WSL

A web developer on Windows can use WSL to run Linux-based tools, install packages, test scripts, and work with server-like environments without leaving the Windows desktop. Open sourcing WSL makes that workflow more transparent and gives advanced users a clearer path to understand bugs, propose changes, or follow development.

3. Reviewing AI-Generated Pull Requests

With Copilot’s coding agent features, developers may assign tasks and review resulting pull requests. That does not remove the need for human judgment. In fact, it makes review discipline more important. AI can accelerate routine work, but maintainers still need to check architecture, security, licensing, tests, and whether the code actually solves the problem instead of confidently inventing a new one.

Experience Section: Living Through the “Cool in 2006” Feeling

Anyone who worked with open-source software in the mid-2000s remembers a very particular feeling. You had one foot in the future and one foot in a driver installation nightmare. Linux was powerful, flexible, and exciting, but sometimes getting Wi-Fi to work felt like summoning a woodland spirit with a kernel module. Forums were lifelines. Documentation was either brilliant or last updated during the Bronze Age. If you got everything working, you felt like a wizard. If you did not, you learned humility, usually at 2:13 a.m.

That is why Episode 834’s title lands so well. In 2006, using free and open-source software often carried a sense of identity. You were not just choosing tools; you were choosing a philosophy. You cared about inspectable code, user freedom, community development, and the right to tinker. You probably also cared a lot about your window manager, though polite society rarely brings that up at dinner.

The modern developer world is more polished, but the old questions remain. When Microsoft releases Edit as open source, the reaction is partly practical and partly emotional. The practical side says, “Great, Windows finally has a modern built-in terminal editor.” The emotional side says, “Wait, Microsoft made a tiny open-source command-line editor inspired by DOS-era simplicity? Did the timeline sneeze?”

The same is true for WSL. For many developers, the first time they opened a Linux shell inside Windows and ran familiar tools without dual booting felt like cheating in the best possible way. It collapsed a wall that used to define entire workflows. Instead of choosing between ecosystems, you could mix them. You could write code on Windows, run Linux tooling, push to GitHub, deploy to cloud infrastructure, and pretend your desk was organized.

But experience also teaches caution. Open source veterans have seen good projects go quiet, licenses change, communities split, and corporate priorities shift. They know that a repository is not the same thing as a healthy project. They know that governance matters. They know that “community feedback welcome” can mean anything from genuine collaboration to “please file issues in this decorative mailbox.”

That is the value of FLOSS Weekly. It creates space to talk about tools with both enthusiasm and memory. Episode 834 is not just about Microsoft having a productive Build season. It is about what those announcements mean in a longer story that began before cloud-native everything, before AI pair programmers, and before GitHub became the default home for modern software collaboration.

For developers who remember 2006, the episode feels like a postcard from an alternate future. The old arguments are still here, but the players have changed costumes. Microsoft is opening terminal tools. Redis is navigating its return to an OSI-approved license. AI assistants are becoming part of the editor. The terminal is fashionable again. Somehow, the command line won. It just came back wearing nicer fonts.

The lesson is not that every corporate open-source announcement should be trusted immediately. The lesson is that open source has become too important to ignore and too complex to judge by slogans. Developers should welcome useful tools, celebrate real openness, question vague promises, and keep reading the licenses. In other words: enjoy the cool thing, but check what is inside the box.

Conclusion: Episode 834 Is About More Than Nostalgia

FLOSS Weekly Episode 834: It Was Cool In 2006 is funny, timely, and surprisingly revealing. On the surface, it covers Microsoft’s open-source announcements around Edit, WSL, and Copilot. Underneath, it explores the bigger question of how trust is built in modern software communities.

Microsoft’s open-source evolution is real, but it is also strategic. Edit solves a practical Windows developer problem. WSL becoming open source answers a long-standing community request. Copilot’s movement toward more open integration raises important questions about transparency in AI-assisted development. And the Redis and Valkey discussion reminds everyone that licenses, governance, and community expectations still matter deeply.

In 2006, open source was already cool. In 2025, it is unavoidable. The difference is that today’s open-source world is woven into cloud platforms, AI tools, operating systems, databases, editors, and nearly every serious developer workflow. Episode 834 captures that transition with humor and perspective. It reminds us that technology changes fast, but trust still compiles slowly.