Microsoft may become one of the biggest distributors of open source web software. 

The company has just released a new Web Application Installer that comes with out-of-the-box support for Drupal, OScommerce, and several other popular open-source Web applications.

The  Web Application Installer page said that it provides support for popular ASP.Net and PHP Web applications including Graffiti, DotNetNuke, WordPress, Drupal, and OSCommerce: "With just a few simple clicks, Web Application Installer will check your machine for the necessary pre-requisites, download these applications from their source location in the community, walk you through basic configuration items and then install them on your computer."

This is a long way from the days when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer described Open Source as a "cancer" on software development.

For those who came in late, Drupal is an open source content management platform and is equipped with several quite natty features. It is designed to support a variety of websites ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven websites. X

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