Microsoft to hand over Windows secrets to Samba team
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Developers of open-source Samba software will find their work a little easier thanks to an agreement with Microsoft, signed Thursday, that will give them access to previously secret data on how the Windows operating system works.Microsoft was compelled to make this information available following a March 24, 2004, European Commission antitrust ruling against the company. In July 2006, the EU fined Microsoft &#8364;280.5 million ($338.6 million at that time) for failing to provide documentation on Windows protocols to its rivals.&#160;Microsoft lost an appeal of that decision&#160;in September, setting the stage for the deal.The deal was signed with a nonprofit group called the Protocol Freedom Information Foundation, (PFIF) which negotiated on behalf of the Samba team because Samba is not represented by a corporate entity. PFIF will pay a one-time fee of &#8364;10,000 and, in return, will be able to allow open-source developers, including the Samba team, to access the documents.Developers will have to sign nondisclosure agreements and will not be allowed to redistribute Microsoft&#39;s documentation, but they will be able to write open-source software that implements the Windows protocols. The deal will also clarify which patents Microsoft believes are related to this technology, making it easier for open-source developers to avoid patent violations.Antitrust rulings forced Microsoft to set up protocol-licensing programs in the past, including the MCPP (Microsoft Communications Protocol Program) and the WSPP (Work Group Server Protocol Program), but these efforts were not compatible with open-source software licenses.That is apparently not a problem with the PFIF agreement.&quot;They&#39;re giving us all the documentation to make everything work,&quot; said Jeremy Allison, co-author of Samba. &quot;We will have no more excuses to suck &#8230; if we don&#39;t have something, we won&#39;t be able to say it&#39;s not our fault, we don&#39;t know how to do it.&quot;Samba is an open-source version of the file-and-print software used by Windows. It is a standard component of the Linux and Unix operating systems, allowing these systems to share data and work alongside Windows clients.But development of Samba has traditionally been back-breaking work. Developers would analyze network traffic to try and glean how Windows was working and then build their software based on that knowledge -- a process called reverse-engineering.With the new agreement, developers will have access to Microsoft&#39;s own protocol specifications and will be able to build their software based on those documents, Allison said. That, in turn, will accelerate the team&#39;s development of its next generation of software, which will implement the new Sever Message Block 2.0 protocol used by Windows Vista.Though the deal was reached on Thursday, developers were still waiting for the final technical aspects of the document hand-over to be settled, Allison said. He expects to get his hands on the technical specifications fairly soon. &quot;I&#39;m guessing that for my Christmas vacation I&#39;ll have some enjoyable things to read,&quot; he said.
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A Microsoft UK replacement scheme for pirate copies of Windows XP suggests the company is testing the waters to see how feasible it is to convert sections of its unlicensed user base to legitimate users.
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The company plans to making available free software that connects its Windows operating system to software services delivered on the Internet.
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Giants team on giant white paper Microsoft and Cisco Systems have detailed plans for interoperability between systems designed to enforce security policies on Windows PCs and servers.â¦
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As part of a European antitrust settlement, Microsoft will supply Windows protocol documentation to developers of the open-source software.
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WASHINGTON - Microsoft Corp. disclosed plans Thursday to offer frustrated users of its Windows software new tools within 30 days to remove spyware programs secretly running on computers.
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The ruling forces Microsoft to divulge some trade secrets and produce a version of Windows without its digital media player.
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Microsoft and a group of recording labels are in discussion about how the next generation of the Windows Operating System, codenamed Longhorn, will support Copy Protected CDs.
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As part of a European antitrust settlement, Microsoft will supply protocol documentation to developers of the open-source software.
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Microsoft Corp. yesterday released an unusually large number of software security updates to fix flaws in its products, some of which could be exploited to remotely take over computers running the Windows operating system.
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A flaw in popular Windows server software could allow remote attacks to be launched against systems, Microsoft has confirmed. The vulnerability is in Windows Internet Name Service, or WINS, a network infrastructure
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Microsoft (Quote, Chart) plans to issue a patch for a security flaw in Windows Server software that may allow attackers to gain control over systems running the program, the company said.
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Microsoft and Cisco Systems have announced that the two companies have entered into a pact to share security and network health technologies, to better stop, isolate and eliminate viruses and other malicious codes on Windows-based networks.
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IT administrators preparing for the Windows XP SP2 juggernaut may want to catch up on their reading before deploying the service pack.
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Microsoft will support the OpenID standard, Bill Gates and Craig Mundie said today at RSA.