Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot...

Just what does Microsoft’s recent agreement to cut costs and ease

restrictions that kept competitors from viewing the inner workings of the

Windows program mean? Is Microsoft feeling the heat of the Open Source software?

Or is it a move to placate rivals who were not satisfied with the antitrust

settlement saying the terms were anything but reasonable? They had said

Microsoft had made the license so expensive that it wasn’t financially

feasible. But Microsoft claims that this is a move that will make it easier for

the companies to license Microsoft’s technology–and is in compliance with

the antitrust settlement.

The source code saga



In a world of increasing clamor about source code sharing and Open Source

software (OSS) threatening proprietary software (read Microsoft’s software),

Sanjiv Mathur, group manager (marketing) at Microsoft, feels it’s only

recently that the "noise" about Open Source has increased. "The

reaction that the recent Microsoft announcement has evoked is more than

necessary.

Microsoft has been sharing the source code for a long time, though only to

select segments," he says. He calls Open Source a "confused

world" that is grappling with licensing issues and seems to be losing out

on the development front. He adds–"The number of submissions into

standards is more from commercial than the Open Source."

Dut despite sharing the source code in commercial software not being new and

that the developers have had access to the source code for long, Microsoft is

averse to sharing the entire source code. It believes in partial visibility, and

that too in select segments–universities for research, for customers who

invest heavily in Microsoft platforms, and governments. "It’s not

wrong," says Mathur, because of the sophistication of issues that people

are faced with. "Right at the outset of development, at beta stages and

even at later stages, developer feedback is sought", he counters.

Moving on to Open Source



Microsoft is aware of the growing stature of OSS like OpenOffice and other

such software in general, and Linux in particular. And, the ground reality

remains that not only is OSS increasing in popularity but also in

implementation. A majority of servers hosting websites and e-mail accounts

around the world run on Open Source software. Also, many governments globally

have already moved on to OSS for their departments and many more are

contemplating the same. In June 2002, the German government announced that it

would replace some parts of its IT system with Open Source programs. The

Taiwanese went ahead with plans to develop local Linux software to limit

Microsoft’s dominance in software. Governments in countries including France,

Finland, the Philippines, South Korea and China have also inched towards OSS. In

Norway, government representatives have looked at Open Source software as a way

to cut costs, as contracts with Microsoft were "getting expensive day by

day".

All options open to India



Though Bill Gates, during his latest visit to India, announced an investment

of $400 million in India over the next three years, it was construed as an

attempt to prevent the Indian government from deciding upon adopting Open Source

software.

However, the Indian government has taken note of the potential of Open Source

and there is talk of incorporating OSS in government departments. But as a

respite for Microsoft, IT and telecommunications minister Arun Shourie doesn’t

want to do away with proprietary software completely and wants to "adopt

the formula of ‘and also’ rather than ‘either-or’, to encourage software

development in the country. Given the fact that Microsoft is at the negotiating

table with the government for source code sharing and subsequent developmental

work, the field in India still offers wide opportunities of play for Microsoft.

With companies like IBM, Sun and HP supporting the Open Source platform, is

Microsoft losing sleep over Linux? Not quite so, if Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

is to be believed. Ballmer, who had earlier said the license governing Linux

made the software a "cancer", discounted the threat posed to the

company’s ambitions from the Linux brigade at the recent launch of Windows

Server 2003. But Microsoft has now realized that to consolidate its lead, it has

to adapt to the changing development and licensing models and play the game by

the new rules.

NEETU KATYAL