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Microsoft Agrees to Release Work Group Protocols

Posted by Zonk on from the kind-of-a-big-deal(tm) dept.

UnknowingFool writes "Groklaw is reporting that the Protocol Freedom Information Foundation (PFIF) has signed an agreement with Microsoft to release their protocols relating to Windows Work Group Server. The Foundation agrees to pay MS $10,000, and the agreement does not cover patents. This agreement apparently was made to somewhat satisfy the EU Commission complaints. With PFIF's objective to aid open source, this agreement means that the Samba Team may finally get the information they need to fully interoperate with Windows AD servers."

8 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Just another example by microbee · · Score: 4, Insightful

    that EU did something the US government couldn't.

    1. Re:Just another example by wizardforce · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'd like to think that the EU has a better system for dealing with monopolies although at the same time I can't help but wonder if the fact that Microsoft isn't based there had a lot to do with it. in either case, good job EU! The only thing better would be if they actually had the power to give Microsoft more than a slap on the wrist and used that power if/when Microsoft starts giving anyone trouble.

      --
      Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
    2. Re:Just another example by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'd like to think that the EU has a better system for dealing with monopolies although at the same time I can't help but wonder if the fact that Microsoft isn't based there had a lot to do with it.

      This might apply for a case within a given EU member state, since politicians can play on anti-americanism, but not so much for EU posts. The EU commission has enforced antitrust regulation against numerous european countries over the past decade. If anything they seem to have gone out of their way to give MS huge amounts of leniency and extra time.

  2. and you'll see this in a glossy brochure... by russ1337 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Good news for Samba. Still listening to that audio link, but it's interesting that the Samba team aren't allowed to release the information they receive, just use it for developing OSS.

    I'm sure Microsoft will use this in their 'we support open source' campaign. (I've always reckoned Microsoft should release the code for their unsupported OS's such as Windows 3.11)

    Doesn't cross license patent's, but Microsoft does have to provide a full list the patents that they believe Samba infringes. This allows Samba guys to code around it. Good news for them.

  3. So where can I find the documentation? by Schraegstrichpunkt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Taking a quick look at the agreement, it looks like PFIF can't release the documentation to the public. So, as a user of Samba, if I find a bug in Samba's handling of the protocols, how do I fix it? If I have to rely on the "Samba Team" to fix the problem, this isn't much better than source-available proprietary software---I'm still tied to a single vendor.

    Let's be serious, they're still confidential, proprietary protocols, aren't they? Way to go, Microsoft.

    --
    http://outcampaign.org/
  4. Thanks by DrYak · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just to say thank you for all your work.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  5. Novell is probably happy. by miffo.swe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Its pretty funny that Novell cant make their products work against AD. They have this agreement with Microsoft and it sure looks like pure vapour.

    Samba seems the only way that Novell can make for example Open Enterprise work as an AD controller. This is in my mind pretty funny considering they are supposedly in an interoperability agreement with Microsoft.

    What i think happened was that Novell was given a large wad of money to shut up and pretend that Microsoft is working togheter with others in the industry and to give credibility to the patent FUD.

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  6. Re:Until the next release? by jabuzz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How are they going to do that without breaking the millions of clients in their existing install base? Besides Microsoft are simple not that agile in software releases. It took five years to ship Vista, and there is a similar gap between Server 2003 and 2008.

    If they did somehow manage to suddenly become agile and do these releases then it would bring squeals of protest from their clients. Sorry you cannot update your machine over the network to the new networking standards as we have already upgrade the server to make the clients incompatible.

    Apart from fedorated directories what extra does Sever 2008 bring in the fileserver/domain controller space? As far as I am aware nothing.