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//I can't see where the irony is. What the community hopes for is for interoperability with the community, not Linux, and most certainly not a linux VENDOR. Interoperability is very easy to achieve you just adhere to published standards, and if you must re-invent the wheel so as to make slightly elliptic that you publish the focal points for everyone to be able to use, and not by signing "no-sue" agreements. Simple as that. //
Exactly.
If Microsoft really wanted interoperability with Linux, all they needed to do was have a look at the code in Linux systems (Samba, Linux, Mono & OpenOffice) and submit a few modifications to those projects.
Presto! Instant interoperability, at zero cost.
What this deal really seems to be about is that Microsoft has gone out of their way to obscure things so that Samba, Linux, Mono & OpenOffice can not fully interoperate with Microsoft products. Microsoft have made a deliberate secret here, to PREVENT interoperability.
So now, what Microsoft/Novell want to do, is to put some proprietary binary layer of code in SuSe Linux to achieve the interoperability that Microsoft themselves deliberately prevented by obscuration, and they want to charge Linux users a license fee for that binary layer.
This isn't about interoperability per se. It is about Microsoft finding a way to derive an unearned revenue stream from Linux via their customers' desire for interoperability.




Member since:
2006-06-22
"There is also a certain amount of irony criticising Microsoft for working towards better interoperability with a Linux vendor"
I can't see where the irony is. What the community hopes for is for interoperability with the community, not Linux, and most certainly not a linux VENDOR. Interoperability is very easy to achieve you just adhere to published standards, and if you must re-invent the wheel so as to make slightly elliptic that you publish the focal points for everyone to be able to use, and not by signing "no-sue" agreements. Simple as that.
Excuse the irony ... pun intented.
spelling edit
Edited 2006-11-08 19:35