Big Evil Wants to Play Nice Now?
February 22nd, 2008 by Justin Ryan
We know, we know, we've done enough Microsoft news this week, and we promise this will be the last one — February is a short month, and we have to get our quota in or the Boss'll take away our stapler. We couldn't pass up this opportunity, however, as it's the first time in history that the "Microsoft" and "Open Source" can appear in the same sentence without the phrase "desperately wants to crush."
According to an announcement from Empire CEO Steve Ballmer, Open Source's greatest enemy now wants to be its biggest friend. If Satan's Little Helper is to be believed, the monomaniacal monopolists have seen the light and to prove it will be releasing the details of APIs for it's biggest products as well as software patents in order to make interoperability with Microsoft products easier. Even better, they've promised not to sue anybody who uses the documentation for non-commercial Open Source software, a catch that sheds light on what they're really up to: maintaining the status quo in prettier packaging.
We tend to agree with the European Commission: We've heard this one before. The Commission's statement indicates that it doesn't put any more stock in Microsoft Bull 2008 than any of the company's other statements, and will be continuing with its investigations into massive anti-trust violations. MS, for its part, swears the announcement wasn't an attempt to slither out of the European investigation — it just has a "unique legal situation."
Is it too much to hope that their unique legal situation will involve dissolution and prison sentences sometime in the not-too-distant future?
__________________________
Justin Ryan is News Editor for LinuxJournal.com.
Visit Linux Journal on IRC.
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Microsoft interview on CNBC
On February 23rd, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:
The Microsoft guy interviewed on CNBC said they were "opening" 30,000 pages of documentation with this announcement on their website.
The Microsoft OOXML ISO specification was 6,000 pages alone (while the ODF was 600 pages ). OOXML spec is Ten Times as big as the ODF spec.
Bloated?
Justin, is there a way to measure just how "open" Microsoft has become with their 30,000 pages? (OOXML spec times five)
Hmmm.
On February 24th, 2008 Justin Ryan says:
A microscope?
I suspect that once everything they plan to release is available online and the Open Source community has had time to sift through it, we'll know just how "open" they've really become. It'll be the programmers who can actually roll up their sleeves and dig into what MS has released that will shed light on what they've really offered.
Somehow, I suspect it'll end up being very similar to government "declassifications": It looks impressive at first, but when you really get into it, there isn't much useful information at all.
__________________________Justin Ryan is News Editor for LinuxJournal.com.
Visit Linux Journal on IRC.
Just like the Microsoft "ISO and OOXML Strategy" - BAIT
On February 24th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:
The main common sense argument against the 6000 page OOXML specification is, and was, that only Microsoft could fully implement OOXML. And, that Mocrosoft could make changes to OOXML that would leave the competition lost in the dust and running in circles.
So, this 30,000 page "open" up Microsoft jesture is designed to confuse and distract the open source community from futher progress, to buy Microsoft some "catch" up time, to please the EU regulators, to spin the main stream press and public opinion that Microsoft is not evil, to aid in the takeover of Yahoo, and to use as a ISO tool to shove the OOXML through in Geneva on Feb. 25, 2008.