Is Microsoft really lending Linux a helping hand?
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently announced his company's "Interoperability Initiative", a pledge to work together with the open-source world for both mutual benefit, and the benefit of customers and users. Given its past history, it's impossible to take Microsoft's claims at face value, but they certainly do warrant closer inspection.
Surprisingly, there's some good stuff in there. For instance, Microsoft has partnered with PHP developers Zend to improve its performance under Windows, and extend its support for SQL Server. Ballmer may finally be realising that there's more value in being a part of a heterogeneous world than in pushing a 100% Microsoft solution.
Unfortunately, while Microsoft is making progress in some areas, many of its claims fall flat. One example is the pledge to support the developers of Samba with documentation and testing. Samba allows Linux systems to work with Windows networking protocols, so it's a critical component in heterogeneous environments, but Microsoft held off on supplying documentation until late last year, when an EU antitrust ruling called for its release. This announcement, just months after the EU ruling, sounds more like PR spin than genuine co-operation.
Microsoft's patent pledge is perhaps more worrying. It has promised not to assert patent claims against developers working on open-source projects, but the cover does not apply to commercial distributors of those projects, so distributors like Red Hat are still very much at threat. In broader terms, it undermines one of the basic tenants of open-source -- that the user can, within the licence requirements, do whatever they like with the software -- since the user is only free from the threat of patent claims until they start charging money.
Ultimately, Microsoft's sincerity is in question, with many speculating that its true motives remain hidden. If Microsoft is genuine, only consistent good deeds will counter its history and silence the critics.
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Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Comments: 1
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William Maher
Mar 26, 2008 8:09 PM
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More support for Samba would be nice. |