Microsoft More Open
    Microsoft has been on an openness kick of late for two reasons. One is of a 
  legal nature; Microsoft's toughest legal foe is the European Union, which has 
  been suing and fining the company for years. The U.S. government, though far 
  less active under the Bush administration, is another thorn. And, lastly, Microsoft 
  competitors have been suing over antitrust.
The other reason is the reality that open source exists and IT likes it.
Regardless of the reason, Microsoft is taking openness seriously. It struck 
  a deal with Sun, whose former CEO, Scott McNealy, has more bad words for Redmond 
  than an HBO late-night series. While the Sun deal has been a bit of a dud, the 
  one that has bore real fruit is the Novell 
  arrangement, where the companies offer mutual tech support and now have 
  significant interoperability. 
Microsoft is extending this activity to the rest of the open source world through 
  its Interoperability Principles. The latest news is that Microsoft has formally 
  released documentation for key protocols used in the latest versions of 
  Exchange, SharePoint and Office. If you're a real glutton for this kind of stuff, 
  there are now 50,000 pages worth of protocol specs. Now there's some fun summer 
  reading.
Do you use Novell and Microsoft? Is the relationship as fruitful as I make 
  it out to be? Set me straight at [email protected].
 
	
Posted by Doug Barney on July 01, 2008