EU praises Microsoft plan

Software giant's proposal for complying with Europe's interoperability demands will now be "market tested" with other industry players.

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[furian]

Mixed Emotion

on this proposal. On one hand they developed / bought the technology and it aids in revenue for their company. Being forced to give it away is almost communistic. But they made a good faith offer of non-royalty access to the protocols as long as their IP was not released in source with the application using it. I think this is a viable offer, though those in the OSS community will blow a gasket and cite GPL restrictions, but those persons wanting to make a living with the software they write could benefit us all. We all have bills to pay and need to make an honest living; albeit I think MS made somewhat of a dishonest living by overcharging for software that is needlessly bundled / bloated with software and options I don't want or need leading to an overpriced and unsecure system that they force on people. Dead Rat makes money of the honest contributions of the community and look how well they treat them. I stopped with them at RH Pro 9 and went to SuSe.

[technewsjunkie]

What about Media Player competition!?!

Why no news on the media player aspect which for me as a
developer is HUGE! Not to mention the impact on that entire
market, including the burgeoning "digital living room", etc.

I'm hoping the EU didn't simply intend this as a bargaining chip!!

[bigjim01]

The meaning of the EC's decision

The meaning of the decision is that work hard, do well, and we will rip you off.