Andrew Bartlett on Samba, Microsoft, and Active Directory

“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.”

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