By Bill Gates, Microsoft Executive
Mail
Microsoft's product interoperability strategy:
"First, we continue to support customers' needs for software that
works well with what they have today. Second, we are working with
the industry to define a new generation of software and Web
services based on eXtensible Markup Language (XML), which enables
software to efficiently share information and opens the door to a
greater degree of 'interoperability by design' across many
different kinds of software. Our goal is to harness all the power
inherent in modern (and not so modern) business software, and
enable them to work together so that the whole is greater than the
sum of the parts. We want to further eliminate friction among
heterogeneous architectures and applications without compromising
their distinctive underlying capabilities... The XML-based
architecture for Web services, known as WS-* ('WS-Star'), is being
developed in close collaboration with dozens of other companies in
the industry including IBM, Sun, Oracle and BEA. This standard set
of protocols significantly reduces the cost and complexity of
connecting disparate systems, and it enables interoperability not
just within the four walls of an organization, but also across the
globe."
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/2005/02-03interoperability.asp
Amen Bill! As long as this doesn't
covertly imply "Windows Specificity" by way of "Interoperability"
becoming a "Windows Unique Selling Point"!
As per usual, the devil will be in the
implementation details of your company's products.