Microsoft going the “Open” way?
In a significant press meet today, Microsoft stunned the world by announcing “a set of broad-reaching changes to its technology and business practices to increase the openness of its products and drive greater interoperability for developers and competitors.” At the core of this shift in strategy are four driving principles: (1) ensuring open connections; (2) promoting data portability; (3) enhancing support for industry standards; and (4) fostering more open engagement with customers and the industry, including open source communities.
Starting today, the software giant will publish documentation for all application programming interfaces (APIs) and communications protocols in its high-volume products that are used by other Microsoft products. Developers do not need to take a license or pay a royalty or other fee to access this information.
So what’s in it for you? Well, you’ll benefit as the open source coders will be able to design better MS compatible products as Microsoft pledged to publish thousands of documentation around its communication protocols to make it easier for third parties to connect to Microsoft products. Also the firm announced that it will not sue open source developers for development or non-commercial distribution of implementations of these protocols.
[Press Release]
