The software giant settled its four-year antitrust case with the
US Department of Justice and nine US states in November. The US
government had accused Microsoft of anti-competitive conduct which
disadvantaged rival software products and key provisions of the
settlement agreement aim to allow computer manufacturers to
customise their own products with Microsoft software.
Although the settlement agreement has yet to be approved by a
federal judge and is still opposed by nine state attorneys who are
seeking stricter sanctions, it is reported that the US government
wants Microsoft to start complying with its terms as soon as
possible.
Microsoft will disclose 272 Windows Application Programming
Interfaces (APIs) later this month. APIs are pieces of internal
Windows computer code which Microsoft claims will assist developers
to write applications compatible with Windows. The APIs, which were
previously kept secret, will be available free of charge.
In addition, the company will reveal 113 proprietary protocols
which computer server manufacturers will be able to licence and use
in order to make their machines compatible with Windows desktops.
Pricing details for the licensing agreements have not been
disclosed.
The company has further revealed that upcoming versions of
Windows XP will include mechanisms that allow manufacturers and
consumers to add and remove access to certain features, such as
Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, and set defaults for rival
software.
Microsoft has stated, however, that “for security reasons” it
will not disclose a certain Windows programming interface and one
server protocol.
