Developer(s) .NET Foundation Platform IA-32 and x64 | Operating system Type Blog software | |
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Preview release 0.6.1.0 / September 27, 2016; 5 months ago (2016-09-27) Repository github.com/OpenLiveWriter/OpenLiveWriter | ||
Open Live Writer (also known as OLW) is an open-source desktop blogging application released by .NET Foundation. It is a fork of Windows Live Writer 2012, which is developed by Microsoft and is part of the Windows Live family of products. Open Live Writer features WYSIWYG authoring, photo-publishing and map-publishing functionality, and is currently compatible with Wordpress.com, WordPress (hosted), and Blogger, with support for more platforms planned. The app's source code is available on GitHub under the MIT License.
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Windows Live Writer
Open Live Writer is a fork of Windows Live Writer, which is based on Onfolio Writer, a product Microsoft obtained from the acquisition of Onfolio in 2006. The Onfolio Writer team worked together with the Windows Live Spaces team to release Windows Live Writer. After the release of Windows 8, the team responsible for the software were encouraged, by Microsoft, to focus on Metro-style apps, and the last major version of Windows Live Writer was released in 2012.
On June 12, 2014, Scott Hanselman announced the idea of making Windows Live Writer open source. Nearly a year later, it appeared that open sourcing the program was approved by Microsoft. Later that year, .NET Foundation announced an open-source fork of Windows Live Writer.
Initial Announcement
On December 9, 2015, Scott Hanselman announced the forking of Microsoft's Windows Live Writer as an open-source project called Open Live Writer. The announcement notes that the original Windows Live Writer 2012 application will remain a property of Microsoft and will continue to be offered as part of Windows Essentials while Open Live Writer will be developed independently as a separate project as part of .NET Foundation. A downloadable preview version of the application was offered the same day alongside the full source code on GitHub.
On 27 September 2016, Open Live Writer was available on Windows Store.