Microsoft Interoperability: Microsoft opens up its data formats and platforms
Microsoft today announced new interoperability principles to increase the openness of its flagship products Windows Vista (including the .NET Framework), Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office 2007, Exchange Server 2007, and Office SharePoint Server 2007 as well as future versions.
To drive greater interoperability Microsoft sets four new principles, the Questions and Answers page by Bob Muglia is a must read.
PressPass: Isn’t this also intended to be a part of an agreement with the European Commission?
Muglia: Today’s announcement isn’t part of an agreement with the Commission. However, it’s a reflection of the changed legal landscape for Microsoft and the industry as a whole. It’s an important step forward in our ongoing efforts to fulfill the responsibilities and obligations outlined in the ruling of the European Court of First Instance in September 2007.
To me it sounds like a huge change, but I want to go deeper into before writing more about it.
Carlo Daffara 11:37 am on February 22, 2008 Permalink
Many others have commented that this kind of announcements are being done with a certain regularity, and that the patent covenant are not extended to “commercial open source developers” (whatever that may means) but only for “noncommercial OSS developers”. I have found much more interesting the announcement that Microsoft will provide a list of patents that cover specific API and technology, and this will provide a “navigation” across potentially infringing open source implementations, or the possibility for invalidation (by the identification of prior art, for example) of patents that cannot be circumvented.