Microsoft makes interoperability pledge
Date : 02 21 2008 Category : Technology
VNUNET.COM Latest updatesShaun Nichols in California, vnunet.com, Friday 22 February 2008 at 00:00:00
Company promises to play nicely
Microsoft has launched a campaign to open up its software to outside developers. The company today vowed to adopt a series of four new goals which the company hopes will make it better able to interact with other vendors and developers. The so-called "interoperability principles" include a focus on establishing better connections with third-party products, allowing for better portability of data and support for industry standards, and a commitment to work with open source vendors and developers. "Customers need all their vendors, including and especially Microsoft, to deliver software and services that are flexible enough such that any developer can use their open interfaces and data to effectively integrate applications or to compose entirely new solutions," said Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie. "By increasing the openness of our products, we will provide developers additional opportunity to innovate and deliver value for customers." The programme will apply to much of Microsoft's existing enterprise software offerings. Most notably, Windows Vista and Server 2008, SQL and Exchange Server, and the Office 2007 software suite. Microsoft's lack of willingness to open its products to outside groups has long been a point of contention between the company, its competitors, and regulatory groups. Microsoft's unwillingness to open up its products to outside developers was in part responsible for the 400m euro judgement the company incurred from the European Union in 2004. More recently, the company has come under fire from both the EU and open source software advocates for its high royalty rates and patent-sharing programme.
