Richard Campbell
CODE Author
Richard Campbell wrote his first line of code in 1977. His career has spanned the computing industry both on the hardware and software sides, development and operations. He was a co-founder of Strangeloop Networks, acquired by Radware in 2013 and was on the board of directors of Telerik that was acquired by Progress Software in 2014. Today he is a consultant and advisor to several successful technology firms and is the founder and chairman of Humanitarian Toolbox (www.htbox.org), a public charity that builds open-source software for disaster relief. Richard is also the host of two podcasts: .NET Rocks! (www.dotnetrocks.com) the Internet Audio Talkshow for .NET developers and RunAs Radio (www.runasradio.com), a weekly show for IT Professionals. He also produces the DevIntersection (www.devintersection.com) series of conferences.
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Articles Authored
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When Open Source Came to Microsoft
Last updated: Saturday, December 13, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2020 - September/October
In "When Open Source Came to Microsoft," Richard Campbell traces Microsoft's transformation from a proprietary software giant to a leading open-source contributor. He highlights key milestones, including early shared source efforts, the rise of .NET and ASP.NET MVC, and the pivotal shift under CEO Satya Nadella in 2014 embracing true open-source principles with projects like .NET Core and Roslyn on GitHub. Campbell emphasizes how Microsoft evolved by adopting community collaboration, contributing to and integrating open-source technologies, and reshaping its business and culture to thrive in a cloud-centric, open-source-driven software landscape.