> -----Original Message----- > From: Wesley Parish [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2004 10:41 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Meet With MS > > > When is Microsoft going to release the full, non-encumbered > specs for WinML, > their Office2003 file specification, for the purpose of > compatibility with > OpenOffice.org and AbiWord?
This I agree with 100% At the same time I've been spending some time looking at what people are actually using in their office applications. Frankly most of the new features I've seen in the MS offering seem to be little more than visual noise. > Has Microsoft ever considered the brownie points it might > garner by releasing > under the MIT/X11 license, the Microsoft-owned source code to > Win NT 4.0, > Win95, and Office97? Why do we want to see this? I'm not saying that we don't want to see them but I'm unclear as to what advantage would be gained? > Is Microsoft going to license its patents that directly > affect Mono and Samba, > on the same basis as IBM with Linux? Ie, blanket coverage. What is Mono? What are the spicifics of this license and we want to see carried forward and does anyone have details of the current issues? On the Samba front, do we have enought technical information out of MS to keep moving forward? I was recently reading about WinFS which I understand is going to be powered by MS SQL Server. Do the samba guys have full details of the specs to interface with the new technology that's comming? It seems to me that OSS is constantly playing catch up. Gates has been reported as writting OSS off as little more than a catch up team. Linux is pushing off the net and into business as a back end / front end / interface system. By 2006 when Longhorn is due for release does MS want IT people out there telling people not to upgrade because it's not fully compatible with their OSS systems. Now before anyone suggests that this would be in MS interest because then MS can play the "don't bother with OSS then because you can't garanttee compatibility" card, think again. MS systems are protected from the internet by OSS systems. If MS systems aren't compatible with those systems then don't use them at all. What's more important?... The ability to have a pretty wizard flash on your screen while you write a letter that you'll then print and post or the ability to get an email from point a to point b? Cheers Don
