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Click here for full details of Microsoft's plans

It's certainly not won over the European Commission, which continues its investigation into the way the software giant ties its products together.

"The Commission would welcome any move towards genuine interoperability," it claims in a statement. "Nonetheless, the Commission notes that today's announcement follows at least four similar statements by Microsoft in the past on the importance of interoperability."

"In the course of its ongoing interoperability investigation, the Commission will verify whether Microsoft is complying with EU antitrust rules, whether the principles announced today would end any infringement were they implemented in practice, and whether or not the principles announced today are in fact implemented in practice."

The EC also claims that Microsoft's announcement "does not address the tying allegations." A point not lost on rival Red Hat. "Instead of offering a patent license for its protocol information on the basis of licensing arrangements it knows are incompatible with the GPL - the world's most

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widely used open source software license - Microsoft should extend its Open Specification Promise to all of the interoperability information that it is announcing today will be made available," the Linux vendor claims.

"There is no explanation for refusing to extend the Open Specification Promise to 'high-volume' products, other than a continued intention on Microsoft's part to lock customers into its monopoly products, and lock out competitors through patent threats," the company adds in a statement.

Peace at last?

Is anyone prepared to give Microsoft credit for its interoperability drive? Analysts have given the move their cautious backing. "When you rip this all apart, what we're seeing is Microsoft responding to market demand, to be more open and play better with others," Forrester research analyst John Rymer claims.

"This announcement is saying that the top executives see the value of the interoperability work they've done and that they're ready to institutionalise some of the principles they've been operating under."

The founder of the open-source Samba project has also given Microsoft his cautious backing. "The devil is in the details. If it can follow through with this, the world will be a better place," says Jeremy Allison.

"It doesn't mean any change for us [Samba] as we already had all these documents, and the promise not to sue is only for 'non-commercial' open source, which is a bit meaningless.

"At least everyone now gets access to the same info, which I'm very happy about. Hey, should we ask for our money back?"

You can ask Jeremy...