Windows Live Writer, a Microsoft-developed application that allowed users to write and preview blog posts offline, is getting a new name and a new lease on life. A few years after development of the app ended, a team of Microsoft volunteers have relaunched the app as an open source project under the name Open Live Writer.
Microsoft team member Rob Dolin stated in a blog post that Windows Live Writer was the number one app user for authoring a blog post to WordPress.com on a Windows PC, even well after active development of the app ended. He wrote:
"A few team members from my former MS Open Tech team took an early interest in joining Scott Hanselman to revive Live Writer as an open source project. By January 2015, a group of about a half-dozen engineers interested in spending some of their volunteer time to help release an updated version of Live Writer had found each other. Jon Gallant sent an email to a few large group email lists at Microsoft soliciting volunteers and we collected about 50 people interested in helping. Anne Legato, Ed Essey, and the team at The Garage were most helpful in sharing advice on launching external projects. Scott Guthrie also agreed to be Open Live Writer's sponsor."
The first version of Open Live Writer still lacks a number of features compared to the old Windows Live Writer, but the team has a proposed roadmap for future updates that will slowly add new functions to the app.
Source: Openlivewriter.org, .NET Foundation
