Microsoft announces plans for greater interoperability

Microsoft has announced a strategy to increase the way its software works with other systems, including the open source community.

The company plans to support open connections promote data portability, support industry standards and foster more open engagement with customers and the industry, including open source communities.

Chief executive officer Steve Ballmer said, "Our goal is to promote greater interoperability, opportunity and choice for customers and developers throughout the industry by making our products more open and by sharing even more information about our technologies."

Ray Ozzie, Microsoft chief software architect, said, "By increasing the openness of our products, we will provide developers with additional opportunity to innovate and deliver value for customers."

Microsoft products supporting the new initiative include 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.