Earlier today Microsoft announced plans to increase interoperability and be more friendly to open-source software, but, as Red Hat points out, it is just a press release and does not guarantee that everything they say will happen will happen soon, or ever. After years of pressure from the European Union (EU), Microsoft has announced that they will not sue non-commercial open-source developers, make efforts to improve interoperability, and publish APIs for many of their products meaning, for example, that plugins for additional formats in Office could be added.

All of this sounds great, but as Red Hat’s responce to Microsoft’s statement points out, “we’ve heard similar announcements before, almost always strategically timed for other effect. Red Hat regards this most recent announcement with a healthy dose of skepticism.” Although I would like to think Microsoft was truly planning on being more friendly to open-source software, I just cannot help thinking that Red Hat is right. Until Microsoft really does what they say they will do, it is just a publicity stunt to get the EU off their backs. I just hope they really do follow through.

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