At Arm's Length
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| But if Microsoft is reaching out to embrace the open source world with the
| left hand, with its right hand it continues to hold them at bay. Microsoft
| has a long history of treating platforms other than Windows like red-headed
| step-children-acknowledging they exist while at the same time making sure
| everyone knows they aren't really part of the family. In fact, an old joke
| used to say that it was obvious that Microsoft supported cross-platform
| development: you could use Windows XP or Windows 2000.
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http://mcpmag.com/columns/article.asp?EditorialsID=2238
Microsoft Must Share Code With Rivals
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| Microsoft lost its appeal of a European antitrust order Monday that obliges
| the technology giant to share communications code with rivals...
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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070917/D8RN77CG0.html
Related:
Halloween Memo I Confirmed and Microsoft's History on Standards
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| By the way, if you are by any chance trying to figure out Microsoft's policy
| toward standards, particularly in the context of ODF-EOXML, that same
| Microsoft page is revelatory, Microsoft's answer to what the memo meant when
| it said that Microsoft could extend standard protocols so as to deny
| Linux "entry into the market":
|
| Q: The first document talked about extending standard protocols as a way
| to "deny OSS projects entry into the market." What does this mean?
|
| A: To better serve customers, Microsoft needs to innovate above standard
| protocols. By innovating above the base protocol, we are able to deliver
| advanced functionality to users. An example of this is adding
| transactional support for DTC over HTTP. This would be a value-add and
| would in no way break the standard or undermine the concept of standards,
| of which Microsoft is a significant supporter. Yet it would allow us to
| solve a class of problems in value chain integration for our Web-based
| customers that are not solved by any public standard today. Microsoft
| recognizes that customers are not served by implementations that are
| different without adding value; we therefore support standards as the
| foundation on which further innovation can be based.
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http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070127202224445
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