MicrosoFast and the open source conundrum

Another question coming from the merger of Microsoft and FAST Search: what's to become of all the open source technology embedded inside of FAST ESP?

I believe FAST uses MySQL, Tomcat, and certainly Python heavily, and it will be no small matter to 'replace' these items even over months or years. And there may be even deeper integration under the covers. Now, they have acquired companies based on Unix/Linux technologies - Hotmail comes to mind - and they seem to have pretty much left that 'as is'; maybe they will do the same with FAST.

Comments

[AntiArchitect]

Open source is not the only concern - FAST has a very strong following on non-MS platforms as well as a very robust OEM business to the likes of Oracle and ECM (http://much-ado-about-it.blogspot.com/2008/01/for-whom-bell-tolls.html).

However, it seems like MS is taking the more hands-off approach on this one (http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/01/10/the-offer-part-1-fast-responds/)