PlexNex: Microsoft Concedes They've Been Cheeting All Along

Joe Wilcox hits it hard -- all good wood -- in his spot on assessment of the shadow interoperability measures just announced which were supposed to rock our world ...

Ozzie said that the information disclosure demonstrates "our
commitment to an open and level playing field." I find the statement
hugely perplexing. How is that commitment defined? Microsoft will
disclose Office and Windows information that is available to the
company's other product groups. So, interoperability—a "level playing
field"—means that third-party developers will get the same information
access that Microsoft developers already have.

What the hell? Ozzie's statement means one of two
things, and neither reflects well on Microsoft's interoperability
commitment. Either the information was already available or it wasn't.
If it already was available, then there is nothing new here and
Microsoft is blowing PR smoke. If the information wasn't already
available, then Microsoft is conceding that US and European
trustbusters were right all along—that the playing field wasn't level, that Microsoft developers had access to information not available to third parties.

Microsoft: still a bunch of gangsters.