Making sense of Microsoft and open source

The software giant's latest move offers a nice dose of kumbaya to open-source developers, but it goes only so far.

Microsoft launches open-source charm offensive

Pledges to improve openness with standards and open source recognize Microsoft's antitrust legal requirements and higher market priority on interoperability.
February 21, 2008

Redmond's open-source patent threat still intact

Microsoft truly is sharing more--but it still insists that companies selling or using some open-source software must license Microsoft patents.
February 21, 2008

Open-source fans mixed on Microsoft move

Open-source representatives are both warm and cool about Microsoft's move to share its documentation and interface, if not its patents. (From News.com's Underexposed blog)
February 21, 2008

Microsoft's long history of open-source acrimony

Move to help open-source programmers but not open-source companies is a new chapter in the company's ambivalence toward the movement.
February 21, 2008

Yang to Ballmer: May your first child be a masculine child

Sources say that Yahoo's CEO is working out details of a plan he intends to submit to investors if Microsoft attempts to enlist shareholder support for a buyout.
February 21, 2008

Microsoft finally learning to let 'X' talk to 'Y'

Ray Ozzie's fingerprints are all over the company's new interoperability principles, and that's a good thing, says CNET News.com's Charles Cooper.
February 21, 2008

EU regulators cool on Microsoft open-source move

Announcement won't affect its antitrust investigations against the software giant, says European Commission.
February 21, 2008

The openness pledge: What's the reality?

Let's give the company a little credit: it's a great step in the right direction. But it's not exactly manna from heaven.
February 21, 2008

Microsoft: We won't sue over open source

As part of a new interoperability strategy, software maker says it won't take legal action against those who develop open-source products, CNET News.com has learned.
February 21, 2008

Red Hat was right, Novell was wrong

What little wind Novell got puffed into its sails from its lockup with Microsoft just dissipated with Redmond's new interoperability pledge.
February 21, 2008

Updated: 5:34 AM PDT