LwEEs.com

Microsoft Goes Open

Microsoft announced the implementation of new “Strategic Changes in Technology and Business Practices to Expand Interoperability,” I was really impressed with this announcement until I read a couple reports from experts in the industry. I’m asking myself now if Microsoft is trying to screw up the open source community with this so-called effort to be more open.

Skepticism comes to my mind, as we know that Microsoft likes to make promises and then they don’t deliver, but it looks like this time they are clear on what their goal is. They claim to want to play nice with the interoperability side of their business by ensuring open connections, I’m not a developer so this means very little for me.

I’m thinking they want to make sure that all MS Office documents are compatible with other document management applications like OpenOffice, NeoOffice, and other flavors of Office Suites, etc. Are they really doing this or open just means that they want more people developing for them on some sort of freeware license, leaving open standards behind.

On the other hand, maybe they are just trying to help the occasional developer that is trying to do a plugin for MS Office, proprietary, functional only to one company. This developer will have the tools to make the plugin 100% integrated with the office suite without paying royalties or licenses to MS. I’m not buying it, something tells me that I’m not getting this at all.

Microsoft also mention data portability, I’m not sure what this would mean to the end user. Does this means portability across platforms, compatible across programs, or portable as one open standard? I heard Paul Thurrott saying on his show with Leo Laporte that this is not the first time Microsoft tries something like this, just to look good on the eyes of those who are not happy with them, i.e. the EU.

Whatever is that Microsoft if trying to do, whatever their intentions are, we will know soon rather than later. For now, they still dominate the market and unfortunately I haven’t find any other software that allows me to write the way MS Word does. One day I will leave this company forever, for now I think there is no competition to their Office Suite.

Do you agree with me? Don’t hate me for expressing myself, if you have a better clue of this approach by Microsoft, they talk to us about it by leaving a comment on this post.

Photo source http://tech.optzile.com/?p=11

Windows Weekly with Leo Laport and Paul Thurrott