February 15, 2007
Still the best of friends?
Whatever came of all those big claims of future cooperation made at the time of that "breakthrough" agreement between Microsoft and Sun nearly three years ago?
Not much, it seems. Big gestures play well in the media (McNealy and Ballmer swapping hockey jokes? Irresistible!). Keeping track of actual results (or the lack thereof) is far less interesting.
The thought is prompted by the latest grand claims of collaboration emanating from Redmond. Earlier this week, Microsoft promised headway in a number of areas in its partnership with Linux distributor Novell. That included interoperability in identity management, something that could finally relieve frustrated computer users of the constant need to reinput their passwords every time they go to a new application or website.
Hang on: this is exactly what was promised of the Sun accord. Nothing has come of that. What went wrong?
I had the chance last week to ask Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel. Brad’s response wasn’t very encouraging: the Sun deal was mainly about the settling of past disagreements, not really about future cooperation, he said - though he argued strongly that Microsoft really does "get it" when it comes to the need for interoperability.
I put the same question today to Tom Robertson, Microsoft’s general manager of interoperability and standards (that’s a job description invented last year, when the company says it got really serious about playing nicely with others.) He promised that the new interoperability drive at Microsoft will breathe new life into old agreements like the one with Sun.
We’ll see. Personally, I think plenty of people inside Microsoft truly do believe in the need to make their products more interoperable - something that raises big long-term questions for its business model, development culture and technology "stack". Until the actions match the gestures, though, Microsoft will still be viewed with suspicion by many in the tech world.
