微软大量开放产权软件代码 互联网是压力
作者： WJN
责任编辑： 阚智
来源： 《电脑商情报》
时间： 2008-02-22 18:35
Microsoft Corp., aiming to battle Internet rivals, announced a broad set of moves to unlock its tightly protected programs and encourage software makers to build add-on products.
The action reflects the same new dynamics in technology as Microsoft's bid to acquire Yahoo Inc.: Internet companies, in particular Google Inc., are threatening to undermine Microsoft's business of software for personal computers. They are attacking Microsoft with a barrage of smaller online programs that are easy to mix and match. Any programmer can pick up Google's online maps, for instance, and mix in other features such as a calendar of events at various locations.
Microsoft said that for the first time it will allow key details of its software to be freely available over the Internet. That doesn't mean people can download Microsoft Word or Excel without paying for it, but it does mean programmers can more easily build services that work with Microsoft programs without paying licensing or other fees.
Yesterday's announcement comes at a generational turning point for Microsoft. Chairman Bill Gates this June plans to retire from full-time work at Microsoft, where he pioneered the personal-computer software business. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is finding he must rethink some of Mr. Gates's core tenets.
By opening some of its software, Microsoft is also altering business practices that have been the target of European antitrust regulators for years. However, European Union officials greeted the news skeptically, saying the announcement "follows at least four similar statements by Microsoft in the past on the importance of interoperability" between the company's own programs and others' programs.
As part of the changes, Microsoft yesterday published 30,000 pages of technical documents describing how its products work -- documents the company previously only made available for a fee. The programs for which it is providing a peek include Windows Vista, the basic operating software that underlies many PCs, and the Office set of programs for email, spreadsheets and other functions.
The company announced other legal and technical changes to encourage software makers to build products that tie into Vista, Word, Excel and other Microsoft programs.
Powerful Tollgate
For 30 years, Microsoft has built its fortunes on software that runs on PCs. The company has tightly held onto the technical details of how that software works, a policy that enabled it to turn its Windows operating system into a powerful tollgate for other companies that wanted to get into the PC software business. Personified by Mr. Gates, Microsoft's software business became one of the most lucrative franchises in business history.
But Microsoft's traditional products aren't designed to evolve via the add-ons or tweaks of thousands of non-Microsoft programmers. Nor can they be easily mixed and matched with other software and services not controlled by Microsoft or its partners. Now the Internet is making that kind of evolution possible, and transforming the way software is made and distributed.
Many players, from Google to individual programmers, are using a host of free technologies to build new types of applications that work over the Internet. Popular programs such as Google Earth and free email services are the result. Increasingly, companies and individuals are melding existing Web sites and software into new applications.
The more people use these applications, the less need they have for Microsoft's applications, or even for the traditional personal computer that runs Windows. By making its software more accessible, Microsoft is hoping to maintain the PC's relevance.
In interviews, Microsoft executives acknowledged the shift. "The world really has changed as a function of the growth of the Internet...and how developers are choosing to write applications for it," said Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect. Microsoft's changes "will have the practical effect of making Microsoft's technologies approachable in a mix-and-match manner," he said.
Mr. Ballmer described as "classic innovation of 20 years ago" the business of making software exclusively designed for PCs and the business that Microsoft so handily controls with its Windows operating system.
Some customers of Microsoft welcomed the changes. Minaz Sarangi, a technology executive at Dutch financial firm ING Groep NV, said integrating Microsoft's technology with technology from other companies, while possible, has traditionally taken a lot of effort. ING runs software from Microsoft and other companies on its servers -- back-office computers that process data -- and is testing customer-management software from Microsoft.
"The less proprietary Microsoft becomes, the better it is for everybody," Mr. Sarangi says.
Microsoft also promised not to sue developers who use its technology for noncommercial purposes. This removes another barrier that may have prevented individual developers and small companies from writing Microsoft-compatible software in the past, said Mike Gilpin, an analyst at Forrester Research. Companies using Microsoft's technology in commercial products will still need to pay royalties to the software giant.
The issue of how much access software developers should have to Microsoft's products has been at the core of the company's battles with European regulators. In a statement, Microsoft said it viewed the new initiative as a key part of its effort to comply with antitrust actions brought by the EU.
Antitrust Ruling
Last September, an appeals court in Luxembourg ruled against Microsoft in a long-running European case. That forced Microsoft to announce a month later that it would drop its appeals and take steps to license information to competitors.
[Bill Gates]
The EU's antitrust watchdog signaled it would keep up its scrutiny. It said it wanted to verify that the principles announced by Microsoft, when put into practice, would end any concerns developers might have over infringement.
A key part of the just-ended case was whether Microsoft had to turn over interoperability information to a rival. Interoperability likewise takes a central role in one of two new antitrust probes announced by the EU just last month.
EU Skepticism
The EU's skepticism over yesterday's announcement in part stems from disappointment over the "Windows Principles," which Microsoft announced in July 2006 with great fanfare. Many of the principles -- such as a commitment to providing rival developers with access to interfaces that let their products talk with Windows -- are echoed in yesterday's announcement. But critics said the Windows Principles fell short.
Maurits Dolmans, a lawyer at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Brussels who has represented complainants in the Microsoft case, said the new principles are good in theory. "We are not, a priori, negative, but skeptical because of past experience," he added.
Mr. Dolmans noted that Microsoft isn't making any promises about preferred placement of Microsoft services, such as an Internet search engine, within Windows. The EU is examining a complaint by browser maker Opera Software that Microsoft improperly ties its Internet Explorer browser to its dominant Windows software, making it harder for smaller rivals to compete.
One small company that welcomed the announcement is Fog Creek Software Inc. of Manhattan. Company chief Joel Spolsky, who worked at Microsoft in the 1990s, says he has been trying to make a better version of Microsoft's software that lets people access one another's computers over the Internet but didn't have the details he needed.
Yesterday, he located those lines of code tucked inside the 30,000 pages of information Microsoft released, he said. Before the code was available only under trade-secrets licenses.
The action reflects the same new dynamics in technology as Microsoft's bid to acquire Yahoo Inc.: Internet companies, in particular Google Inc., are threatening to undermine Microsoft's business of software for personal computers. They are attacking Microsoft with a barrage of smaller online programs that are easy to mix and match. Any programmer can pick up Google's online maps, for instance, and mix in other features such as a calendar of events at various locations.
Microsoft said that for the first time it will allow key details of its software to be freely available over the Internet. That doesn't mean people can download Microsoft Word or Excel without paying for it, but it does mean programmers can more easily build services that work with Microsoft programs without paying licensing or other fees.
Yesterday's announcement comes at a generational turning point for Microsoft. Chairman Bill Gates this June plans to retire from full-time work at Microsoft, where he pioneered the personal-computer software business. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is finding he must rethink some of Mr. Gates's core tenets.
By opening some of its software, Microsoft is also altering business practices that have been the target of European antitrust regulators for years. However, European Union officials greeted the news skeptically, saying the announcement "follows at least four similar statements by Microsoft in the past on the importance of interoperability" between the company's own programs and others' programs.
As part of the changes, Microsoft yesterday published 30,000 pages of technical documents describing how its products work -- documents the company previously only made available for a fee. The programs for which it is providing a peek include Windows Vista, the basic operating software that underlies many PCs, and the Office set of programs for email, spreadsheets and other functions.
The company announced other legal and technical changes to encourage software makers to build products that tie into Vista, Word, Excel and other Microsoft programs.
Powerful Tollgate
For 30 years, Microsoft has built its fortunes on software that runs on PCs. The company has tightly held onto the technical details of how that software works, a policy that enabled it to turn its Windows operating system into a powerful tollgate for other companies that wanted to get into the PC software business. Personified by Mr. Gates, Microsoft's software business became one of the most lucrative franchises in business history.
But Microsoft's traditional products aren't designed to evolve via the add-ons or tweaks of thousands of non-Microsoft programmers. Nor can they be easily mixed and matched with other software and services not controlled by Microsoft or its partners. Now the Internet is making that kind of evolution possible, and transforming the way software is made and distributed.
Many players, from Google to individual programmers, are using a host of free technologies to build new types of applications that work over the Internet. Popular programs such as Google Earth and free email services are the result. Increasingly, companies and individuals are melding existing Web sites and software into new applications.
The more people use these applications, the less need they have for Microsoft's applications, or even for the traditional personal computer that runs Windows. By making its software more accessible, Microsoft is hoping to maintain the PC's relevance.
In interviews, Microsoft executives acknowledged the shift. "The world really has changed as a function of the growth of the Internet...and how developers are choosing to write applications for it," said Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect. Microsoft's changes "will have the practical effect of making Microsoft's technologies approachable in a mix-and-match manner," he said.
Mr. Ballmer described as "classic innovation of 20 years ago" the business of making software exclusively designed for PCs and the business that Microsoft so handily controls with its Windows operating system.
Some customers of Microsoft welcomed the changes. Minaz Sarangi, a technology executive at Dutch financial firm ING Groep NV, said integrating Microsoft's technology with technology from other companies, while possible, has traditionally taken a lot of effort. ING runs software from Microsoft and other companies on its servers -- back-office computers that process data -- and is testing customer-management software from Microsoft.
"The less proprietary Microsoft becomes, the better it is for everybody," Mr. Sarangi says.
Microsoft also promised not to sue developers who use its technology for noncommercial purposes. This removes another barrier that may have prevented individual developers and small companies from writing Microsoft-compatible software in the past, said Mike Gilpin, an analyst at Forrester Research. Companies using Microsoft's technology in commercial products will still need to pay royalties to the software giant.
The issue of how much access software developers should have to Microsoft's products has been at the core of the company's battles with European regulators. In a statement, Microsoft said it viewed the new initiative as a key part of its effort to comply with antitrust actions brought by the EU.
Antitrust Ruling
Last September, an appeals court in Luxembourg ruled against Microsoft in a long-running European case. That forced Microsoft to announce a month later that it would drop its appeals and take steps to license information to competitors.
[Bill Gates]
The EU's antitrust watchdog signaled it would keep up its scrutiny. It said it wanted to verify that the principles announced by Microsoft, when put into practice, would end any concerns developers might have over infringement.
A key part of the just-ended case was whether Microsoft had to turn over interoperability information to a rival. Interoperability likewise takes a central role in one of two new antitrust probes announced by the EU just last month.
EU Skepticism
The EU's skepticism over yesterday's announcement in part stems from disappointment over the "Windows Principles," which Microsoft announced in July 2006 with great fanfare. Many of the principles -- such as a commitment to providing rival developers with access to interfaces that let their products talk with Windows -- are echoed in yesterday's announcement. But critics said the Windows Principles fell short.
Maurits Dolmans, a lawyer at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Brussels who has represented complainants in the Microsoft case, said the new principles are good in theory. "We are not, a priori, negative, but skeptical because of past experience," he added.
Mr. Dolmans noted that Microsoft isn't making any promises about preferred placement of Microsoft services, such as an Internet search engine, within Windows. The EU is examining a complaint by browser maker Opera Software that Microsoft improperly ties its Internet Explorer browser to its dominant Windows software, making it harder for smaller rivals to compete.
One small company that welcomed the announcement is Fog Creek Software Inc. of Manhattan. Company chief Joel Spolsky, who worked at Microsoft in the 1990s, says he has been trying to make a better version of Microsoft's software that lets people access one another's computers over the Internet but didn't have the details he needed.
Yesterday, he located those lines of code tucked inside the 30,000 pages of information Microsoft released, he said. Before the code was available only under trade-secrets licenses.
