Microsoft's New Leaf On Interoperability

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Thursday February 21, 2008 @06:47AM from the step-carefully-kemo-sabe dept.

A large number of readers are submitting the news that Microsoft has made a major announcement about interoperating with others including specifically the FOSS world. The impetus is the ongoing EU antitrust case against Microsoft. The announcement comes in the context of the release of 30,000 pages of API documentation for Microsoft Vista, Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office 2007, Exchange Server 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 — and a listing of patents that apply to these technologies, and a pledge not to sue open source developers who use the APIs. InfoWorld summarizes by saying that Microsoft "promised greater transparency in its development and business practices." Fortune is blunter, saying "Microsoft declares truce in open source war." Here's Microsoft's FAQ on the open source interop initiative.

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Re:Wait a year by ashridah · 2008-02-21 08:06 · Score: 0, Troll

Yeah, that's not actually what a Loss Leader means. Sorry, my 16-year-old supermarket roots are showing :)

It's basically the kind of thing you sell in order to keep your brand visible, that you make cheap enough that people buy it regularly, IE, the returns don't match the investment. Now, sure, we still post profits thanks to asia and america, but you still need to balance the books.