letter from Bill Gates

I'm sure most of you blogging types have read this already, but for those who haven't, I found it very interesting....

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/2005/02-03interoperability.asp

This may seem like an obvious approach, but the desire for interoperability is sometimes mixed up with other issues. For example, interoperability is sometimes viewed merely as adherence to a published specification of some kind, either from one or more vendors or a standards organization. But simply publishing a specification may not be enough, because it overlooks much of the hard work it takes to successfully develop interoperable products – namely, ensuring that the "contract" defined by a specification is successfully implemented in software and tested in a production environment.

Sometimes interoperability is also confused with open source software. Interoperability is about how different software systems work together. Open source is a methodology for licensing and/or developing software – that may or may not be interoperable. Additionally, the open source development approach encourages the creation of many permutations of the same type of software application, which could add implementation and testing overhead to interoperability efforts.

I think I'm going to be sick...

Microsoft: Creating a homogenous marketplace by promoting interoperability :rolleyes:

He might be mates with Bono, but that doesn't mean he's not an arsehole... :mad:

heh...executive email? complete pile of *BS* - interoperability eh? Now I never thought they would stop going on about the huge number of people nicking their stuff.

must just be another one of M$'s desperate pleas for people to like them again.... :eek:

Microsoft recognizes that developers are interested in all of this "standards" and "open source" nonsense and that they will have to make a couple of concessions to their usual "code it any way you want (CPU and spacial inefficiency is a plus, we can charge more for it because people will think more hard work went into it) and stuff it down their throats" strategy. I think they're trying to jump on the bandwagon while simultaneously mocking it. The problem is that a lot of people will see this and believe Microsoft is trying to empower developers and users rather than themselves. Same strategy, different angle.

Yeah, that whole "Executive E-Mail" thing seemed pretty ridiculous to me too. Now, I could understand if it were called "Executive [speech writer's] Long-Winded BS to Get the Public Interested in Us Again Before We Release Windows XP + Avalon [Longhorn]" but it seems kind of dumb to me that Microsoft's executives would e-mail their staff just to tell them how great Microsoft is.

To read a great rebuttal, here's where I got the link from:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/11/hakon_on_ms_interroperability/

What's this... flagging apparently logical statements as disgustingly condescending, and the like? Ok, how about: a qualification of interoperability doesn't quite pivot on notions of CSS-Zen; I mean, get a grip; it's not a simple matter (not that I'd presume to know...). At least it would be nice to see critical analyses backed up with viable alternatives, rather than nonsense. :)