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Not really, but your instincts about "the contract" are correct.

The "shared source" approach is largely a PR
exercise, of course. It in no way resembles
OSS approach in transparency, much less
development model! Therefore it's really no
better than "closed" for the vast majority of
customers, large and small.

It's largely bogus from almost any POV,
inasmuch as it entails - contractually - a "look
but don't touch!" approach that allows for
some inspection but no changes to
the source. Can't change what you're not
allowed to modify in the first place!

Like, look at it under glass, never tell people
what you saw, and be glad you were given
such a priviledged treat by the munificent
Beast of Redmond!

You're still very much at the mercy of M$'s
binaries. No escape, no help if you insist on
rermaining a Microsoft sufferer.

Then there's the remark that M$ the Munificent
will deign to "license the underlying Extensible
Markup Language (XML) file formats in Office."

Oh boy, it'll license what should - as M$ is a
legally-determined monopoly - be offered as
open schema to begin with.

Whatever. M$ will not offer anything
resembling "openness" unless its survival is
at stake. Actually, it is, so you can expect
something tangible sometime in the next five
to ten years.

Posted by: dicktaurus@...   Posted on: 01/16/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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