For many years now, a battle has been raging between those in favor of open standards on the internet and those who feel their best opportunity for profitability lies in proprietary, closed protocols. This was probably symbolized most dramatically in the now nearly forgotten battle between Netscape and Microsoft. Netscape was arguably a company founded on principles opposite Microsoft’s. They embraced open standards and had a large part in popularizing many of the protocols that people today bring to mind when they think of the internet. Microsoft eliminated Netscape by integrating their browser into the operating system in a way that Netscape was unable to duplicate. I remember consciously switching to Internet Explorer back then. I couldn’t uninstall Internet Explorer and I didn’t need two browsers, so Netscape went.

Since that time there has been increasing pressure on Microsoft to give up some of these practices. It is argued that the only reason their protocols are adopted at all is because they use the Windows operating system and it’s near monopoly on the desktop to force the hand of end users. Third parties often cannot create viable alternatives because Microsoft has not published the protocol documentation necessary. Companies and individuals resort to reverse engineering in order to produce third party products compatible with Microsoft’s. Microsoft in turn condemns the reverse engineering of it’s operating system as illegal and it goes on.

In an announcement yesterday, Microsoft took a monumental step back towards cooperation with the community:

Microsoft today announced a set of broad-reaching changes to its technology and business practices to increase the openness of its products and drive greater interoperability, opportunity and choice. These changes are codified into four new interoperability principles and corresponding actions: 1) ensuring open connections; 2) promoting data portability; 3) enhancing support for industry standards; and 4) fostering more open engagement with customers and the industry, including open source communities.

The protocols have been published here. There is also a Slashdot article that links to a few others and also has some humorous user comments that make clear Microsoft has a long way to go. At this point, I’m unsure how this will affect the current controversies surrounding Microsoft’s assertion of it’s own standards in the place of existing open standards, such as in the case of Internet Explorer 8’s “compatibility” meta tag and the “Open XML” used in Office 2007 file formats.   No doubt this is a strategic move aimed at helping Microsoft on both of those fronts.  Regardless, it is a sure step in the right direction. I, for one, am looking forward to the next major releases of Wine and Samba.

Tags: Microsoft
Categories: Public
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