If you didn’t know what was really behind Microsoft’s open standards and source promises, it might sound like Microsoft was making real changes.
You’ve got to give Microsoft credit for gall. They take a crunching defeat at the hands of the European Union court system for trying to conceal information and now that the court has forced them to reveal that same information, Microsoft is all about increasing “the openness of its products and drive greater interoperability, opportunity and choice for developers, partners, customers and competitors.”
Urgh. Excuse me. I feel a little ill.
One publication’s headline, Microsoft makes boldest move yet embracing open source, shows that you really can fool some of the people some of the time. Listen, Microsoft is doing nothing but trying to turn a complete and total defeat into a PR victory.
All those things Microsoft promises it will do—opening up the APIs for its major programs, documenting how Microsoft supports industry standards and extensions, working on document interoperability—they’re all required by the EU decision. In fact, according to the EU, Microsoft didn’t go far enough in its announcement.