
Microsoft Sings a New Tune—Wants to Play Nice With Open-Source - davidw
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/21/microsoft-sings-a-new-tune%e2%80%94wants-to-play-nice-with-open-source/
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gscott
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish>

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henning
"The broad set of interoperability principles it is announcing today will
apply to the following products (including future versions): Windows Vista
(including the .NET Framework), Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office
2007, Exchange Server 2007, and Office SharePoint Server 2007."

In other words (if I'm reading this right), it doesn't apply to at least of
99% of Microsoft's installed base.

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celticjames
How does this work out for open source delevopers: "Microsoft is providing a
covenant not to sue open source developers for development or non-commercial
distribution of implementations of these protocols."

Open source != non-commercial. RedHat, Novell, etc... can and do sell open
source solutions that provide interoperability with Microsoft products. It
seems to me that this is a move to make Microsoft protocols the de facto
standard while still wielding the power to sue competitors who use them.

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iamelgringo
It sounds like it's a "from here on out" type thing. Access to API's can only
be a good thing. Hopefully Ray Ozzie will keep on hammering the issue home.

~~~
ks
And pressure from the EU probably helped a lot :-)

