:Andrew Bartlett on Samba, Microsoft, and Active Directory
Andrew Bartlett on Samba, Microsoft, and Active Directory Oct 23, 2008, 23 :01 UTC (9 Talkback[s]) (4244 reads) (Other stories by Andrew Bartlett)
"In September 2007 Microsoft lost it's appeal of the 2004 anti-trust
Decision by the European Commission. As as result, Microsoft was
required to make protocol documentation available to competitors. The
EU mandated a set of minimum terms (now known as the WSPP) that the
Samba Team (and others) would be able to access the documentation
under. By early 2008 the Free Software community gained access to this
documentation under NDA, and by May 2008 Microsoft made all their
protocol documentation public.
"Nobody in the Free Software community expected this - it is only
natural to assume that a company as opposed to Free Software as
Microsoft would put in the bare minimum of resources into assisting
its competitors.
"Instead, I work regularly with a team of enthusiastic engineers who
clearly want us to succeed, while the documentation isn't always
complete, these engineers do everything they can to provide us with
the information we need."
