http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/1567&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
or http://tinyurl.com/yqljzw
[quote]
Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes stated: “I welcome that
Microsoft has finally undertaken concrete steps to ensure full
compliance with the 2004 Decision. It is regrettable that
Microsoft has only complied after a considerable delay, two court
decisions, and the imposition of daily penalty payments. However,
the measures that the Commission has insisted upon will benefit
computer users by bringing competition and innovation back to the
server market. The Commission will remain vigilant to ensure that
Microsoft continues to respect its compliance obligations and
does not engage in other anti-competitive behaviour. I have
always said that open source software developers must be able to
take advantage of this remedy: now they can.”
[/quote]
Following has an interesting statement regarding Open Source as
being the only competition Microsoft has in the server market.
[quote]
Microsoft has a 95% market share on the desktop operating system
market, and in excess of 70% on the market for work group server
operating systems. Open source work group server products are
virtually the only alternative for users and are thus the main
surviving competitive constraint on Microsoft. More competition
on this market should offer consumers more innovative products,
with improved functionality at better prices. For that reason, it
is vital to the effectiveness of the 2004 Decision that Microsoft
also complies by giving access open source developers access to
the interoperability information.
[/quote]
At least now it seems that we have at least EU to provide a
protective eye against abuses:
[quote]
In addition to the two licences Microsoft will publish an
irrevocable pledge not to assert any patents it may have over the
interoperability information against non-commercial open source
software development projects.
[/quote]
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HPT
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