What has Europe just achieved?

Red Hat, which is clearly very happy about the ruling in Europe, has unleashed the following press release on interoperability.

"Microsoft continues to deny open source providers access to and use of the interoperability information that now clearly must be provided. Red Hat strongly encourages the Commission to take the steps required to assure rapid implementation of a remedy that gives broad and equitable access to Microsoft interoperability information to all competitors, including open source providers. Red Hat firmly believes that competition, not questionable patent and trade secret claims, drives innovation and creates greater consumer value," said Michael Cunningham, Executive Vice President and General Counsel at Red Hat.

Align this together with an eye-catching article which was mentioned just hours ago. It says that "Microsoft must share code with Rivals."

Microsoft lost its appeal of a European antitrust order Monday that obliges the technology giant to share communications code with rivals...

Does this mean that Microsoft will be forced to give everyone what Novell received only for uncomfortable admission of guilt it does not believe in (it "agrees to disagree" on the issue of patents)?

Never forget how we ended up in this sordid mess of incompatible software. As the Halloween Memo teach us, Microsoft deliberately sabotaged interoperability.

Microsoft's answer to what the memo meant when it said that Microsoft could extend standard protocols so as to deny Linux "entry into the market":

Q: The first document talked about extending standard protocols as a way to "deny OSS projects entry into the market." What does this mean?

A: To better serve customers, Microsoft needs to innovate above standard protocols. By innovating above the base protocol, we are able to deliver advanced functionality to users. An example of this is adding transactional support for DTC over HTTP. This would be a value-add and would in no way break the standard or undermine the concept of standards, of which Microsoft is a significant supporter. Yet it would allow us to solve a class of problems in value chain integration for our Web-based customers that are not solved by any public standard today. Microsoft recognizes that customers are not served by implementations that are different without adding value; we therefore support standards as the foundation on which further innovation can be based.