Microsoft plans to charge a royalty for access to Windows'
internals as part of its anti-trust remedy
The software maker announced that it would begin a licensing
programme for the Windows communication protocols. This is designed
to allow third parties to create server software that can
communicate with Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP and future
operating systems.
It planned to license 12 core Windows technologies: for file
serving, print serving and streaming media. It also said it would
reveal 300 new Windows application programming interfaces to help
third-party developers create new Windows applications.
While the decision to open up its proprietary technology may be
seen as beneficial to third-party developers and users, Dan
Kusnetzky, vice-president of system software at market research
firm IDC, questioned how long the new APIs would remain
valid.
"Is Microsoft committing to live with these APIs for a certain
specific period of time, or is this transitory?" he said, noting
that companies would be rightfully chagrined to invest money in
research and development only to have Microsoft change the
technology.
Kusnetzky was also concerned that Microsoft would see the licensing
scheme as a revenue opportunity.
Microsoft's moves appear to be an attempt to ease anticompetitive
concerns about the software maker and fend off more stringent
remedies.
Microsoft has already loosened its licensing terms with PC
manufacturers. Under pressure from the federal court case, the
software maker made concessions last year, such as allowing PC
manufacturers to remove access to the company's Internet Explorer
Web browser and giving them choices on how to configure the Windows
XP desktop.
This has now gone a step further. With the introduction of Windows
XP Service Pack 1 next month, Microsoft said PC manufacturers would
be able to remove the Internet Explorer browser, Media Player,
Outlook Express, Microsoft Messenger and Microsoft Java Virtual
Machine.
Microsoft's announcement comes as US District Judge Colleen
Kollar-Kotelly considers a remedy ruling in the DOJ's five-year
antitrust case against the software maker.
The US government and nine of the 18 US states that pursued the
antitrust case against Microsoft reached a settlement last year,
although the nine remaining states refused to go along, saying the
settlement did not do enough to rein in the software maker.