Microsoft Realizes Open Source or Do they ??? Who Needs MS Office Apis and code access Anyway ?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7257411.stm
I think Microsoft is realizing the end of proprietary and monopoly software is near and the survive it needs to open up . But is it too late for Microsoft for spin the open source buzz word .Is it just to please the european antitrust regulators ? Or it is a cunning move by MS to expliot the open source software developers and community .
The big question is microsoft with its history of proprietary ,closed and monopolized software will able to embrace open source software culture . Its difficult to digest sudden change in their philosophy . Yes it is when I read in details about their announcements . They are just opening up apis for the office suite for developers for "interoperability" .So its just a move towards complying to the antitrust spanks from the EU . If I understand there legal lingo ...they are going to charge royalty fees for use of these apis in third party extensions .
So they still don't get it that Open source is a beautiful culture of openness and innovations where all great things are created by a sense of community and collaboration .
Anyway...the interesting point is do we really need the MS Apis and code access ? With the all the Web 2.0 office applications and open office catching up.... are there any developers want to contribute to MS office applications.
The only application I miss is Excel . I think all the other web based spreadsheet applications will take a long time to offer all its features .
more analysis on the announcement
http://www.microsoft.com/opensource/licenses.mspx
http://www.opensource.org/node/257
http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonmatusow/archive/2008/02/20/microsoft-takes-next-step-in-delivering-interoperability.aspx
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