Microsoft, closing the cracked door
Well that did not take long. A week after saying the XML format of Office 12 would be quasi open source standard Microsoft showed nothing has really changed in Redmond by releasing a covenant license that promises not to sue under certain guidelines, but which falls very short of a open source standard. The furthered that today by confirming that the document from last week was their open source attempt. Full story here
I have always said Microsoft should stick to OS’s. I would also add they eed to make a good OS not just a OK one, charge a fair price ( my diatribe on that topic here), and start innovating instead of coping, reacting and exaggerating. The Redmond Gang needs to get out of trying to run the rest of the computer world via their standards, their criteria, and their guidelines. More and more people and groups are stepping away from Internet Explorer ( Firefox), Office ( Open Office), Outlook ( Thunderbird) and SQL ( mySQL) for open source (and usually free or inexpensive) solutions that provide the same, or almost the same, services as Microsoft’s costly products. Wild Bill from Redmondville recently said Microsoft was going to have to reinvent itself to compete with these types of product and to deal with this issue. I guess that re-invention path just hit a big pot hole.
