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Tridgell Uses Plugfest Against Microsoft
inkslinger77 writes "Andrew Tridgell helped the European Commission's defense of its 2004 Microsoft antitrust ruling at the Court last week by talking about Plugfest, and revealing Microsoft's lack of participation. In an interview after the court had adjourned for the day, Tridgell explained that for the past six years Microsoft has boycotted the event, where engineers from around the world meet up to test their software for interoperability. "
Sure, it's what we would expect them to do. However, it supports the claim that Microsoft does not care about interoperability and wants to illegally leverage its monopoly in some areas to dominate related areas as well. It is a strong clue that Microsoft software fails to interoperate -- if it worked well with others, sending a few engineers for the relevant two-week test session would be a cheap form of PR and would totally defuse complaints about interoperability.
As you would know if you had the slightest clue about Windows NT or its successors, IFS is Microsoft's proprietary Installable File System API. The only thing it tests is whether a software vendor complies with Microsoft, so there is no point for anyone else to bother attending.
Also, ITSC Plugfest is NOT the one TFA refers to (your Google fu is weak). As you might expect, Tridgell was talking about one relevant to Samba: the CIFS Conference & Plugfest, operated by the Storage Networking Industry Association. Most of the vendors who sponsor it do not use Linux on their storage solutions.