Microsoft announces new plan for interoperability. They’ll publish over 30,000 pages of format and protocol documentation, of stuff used in “Windows Vista (including the .NET Framework), Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office 2007, Exchange Server 2007, and Office SharePoint Server 2007, and future versions of all these products”, they’ll license it non-discriminatively and they’ll make it available for free for non-profit uses with a promise not to sue.
I’m not under any impressions that this is anything but an attempt to satisfy European Commission demands and turn the tide of negative press with the Open Office XML ISO vote clusterfuck. The goodness of their hearts this ain’t. But the positive upshots do speak for themselves, and if Microsoft’s MO is to invent new protocols with every major version, they might as well open them up as they enter their slow slippery slope.