Microsoft is Volunteering Windows Open Live Writer (OLW): Open-Source Blogging Tool Revived

Microsoft officially announced on December 9 the launching of a fork of Windows Live Writer. It is a blogging tool software that helps create and post blogs under an open-sourced MIT license.

Nowadays, Microsoft no longer develops Live Writer. Therefore, some Microsoft volunteers decided to make OLW freely available to anyone for downloading along with building on in version 0.5.The latest OLW software supports blogging services such as WordPress, TypePad, and Blogger.

As per the Venture Beat report, in a blog post on the news today, Scott Hanselman, principal program manager for Microsoft Azure, ASP.NET, and Web Tools at Microsoft, warned people up front that the code isn't the freshest thing out there.

He also mentioned that the codes used in Open Live Writer are almost ten years old. The codes might seem unusual if you are not familiar with the old coding style.

However, the Microsoft volunteers will focus on stability and regular updates by adding new code styles later on. This suggests that the OLW software works perfectly fine on Windows.

According to the ZD Net news, Hanselman said that the team behind Open Live Writer worked with Blogger Team within Google on the project as Blogger is moving to OAuth2, Open Live Writer also will be updated to support OAuth2.

In order to announce the effort, a list of what's being removed and added to Live Writer with OLW is available on the blog post of Hanselman. Since 2012, Windows Live Writer has not been updated by Microsoft.

Around that time, Microsoft stopped using Windows Live brand altogether. Along with Messenger, Mail, Movie Maker, SkyDrive, and Photo Gallery, Live Writer was also a vital part of Windows Live Essentials Group.

As per the Dot Net Foundation report, in a guest post-Rob Dolin explains, Windows Live Writer has been turning blogging up to 11 since 2007, but since 2012 things have been a bit quiet with the application itself.

A passionate group of engineers figured out that Live Writer possesses a sustainable future. Moreover, dotnetfoundation welcomed the new project called Open Live Writer.

Scott Hanselman is the one who helped to set light to the project at Microsoft and made it happen with his capable team. Open Live Writer software will allow the users to write, edit and publish their write ups.

The entire project is based on the fork. Even if Microsoft has not updated Live Writer for long, it has always been one of the favorite tools of passionate Windows PC user community to author, edit and publish blog posts.