Discussion on:

Microsoft development is opening up - at least in some ways

Has Microsoft been more open toward developers? Is Microsoft still to proprietary for your taste?

Either they are losing the battle with open standards and decided to try to appear to conform a bit more by complying with one here or there, or they have other reasons that will greatly benefit them in the long run that no one is seeing right now.
I can't believe that a company that has given the finger to open standards all these years is all of a sudden compliant and wants to do the very best job they can. Right....
Something's up.
Right now, there is no IE version that runs a decent version of Javascript. I have a page that looks similar to a spreadsheet that when you modify a field and tab, it takes 10 seconds for the cursor to get to the next field. Contrast that to Firefox (any version) and it's instantaneous. I have tested the latest released version of IE (version 9) and it's still not right.
Lip service sounds more accurate with a few smatterings of actions that are appearing to prove it. Not buying it, but it's a nice thought.

Any IT Pro will tell you that the fatal flaw of open systems is support. In a complex enterprise configuration, you are relying not only on components to work with each other, but to continue to work together over many years. When something fails, and you need to isolate and correct the problem, "Who ya gonna call?" Since you don't really know who built the open source component in the first place, don't know how it's been tested, don't know how it has evolved with industry developments, and don't have anyone on the hook by virtue of your paid license, you become the 're-developer' and effectively the owner of someone else's code.

In an Enterprise system, you are inevitably running proprietary Windows Servers, proprietary Windows and other Databases, and proprietary Windows or other clients with proprietary IE and other browsers. Microsoft is on the hook to make it all work, and they test all forseeable combinations before releasing a new version. And you certainly know who to call. They can't just patch their code without going through a huge test cycle for unforseen complications, but they work especially hard to find viable workarounds in the interim. It is Microsoft that promotes, moderates, and sustains the amazing interconnection of developers and IT Pros from around the world and inevitably a forum full of folks have tripped over the same problem as you and are delighted to work on a common solution for a common problem. Your solution may even be incorporated in future Microsoft releases.

There have been a lot of analyses that "free" software costs significantly more than licensed software in Total Cost of Ownership at an Enterprise client, and big IT shops are happy to pay the license fees in exchange for Microsoft and the other big boys covering our backs when users are hurting.

Open source software is great for the immediate problem it was designed to solve, but who is writing and backing the standard, and who is evolving it as new uses and new products enter the marketplace? If no one is paying, well .. no one is doing it. Where there is an organization supporting and evolving an open-source standard for the common good, you'll find Microsoft money and people supporting that organization.

So yes, Microsoft is being very cautious in supporting open standards; if it's not supportable in real-world use, they don't want it out there giving us all grief. Hurrah for that!

Hi
I have always thought about Microsoft as being middle of the road.

Linux is completely open.
Apple is completely closed.

J