To comply with its proposed settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) and to convince the judge in the federal antitrust case that it will obey behavioral remedies, Microsoft will make available some previously unrevealed network protocols and internal interfaces used by Windows. The company will license more than 100 new network protocols used by desktop versions of Windows to communicate and interoperate with Windows servers, and will publicly document more than 200 internal Windows APIs. The revelations could help ISVs create products to link Windows with other platforms and compete against Microsoft "middleware," such as media players and Web browsers.

License Required for Some Protocols

On Aug. 28, Microsoft will release documentation for 113 previously unrevealed network protocols used by desktop versions of Windows to interoperate or communicate with Windows servers. To access this information, organizations will have to go through a licensing process and sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) restricting them from disclosing the information except under very specific circumstances. The NDA will not prevent organizations from using the protocols to create commercial products, however.

The newly revealed network protocols will probably be most interesting to organizations that create interoperability applications linking Windows with other platforms, such as Ximian (which makes a client and connector that allow Linux-based PCs to get mail and calendar information from Exchange Server) and SAMBA (an open-source project that supports Windows-compatible file and print services on Unix and Linux servers).

Microsoft did not say whether the Aug. 28 release would contain any new information about its proprietary extensions to the Kerberos specification, which are used by Windows to support group membership identification. Microsoft has published some information about these extensions, but not enough to allow other companies to duplicate the functionality of a Windows domain controller. The European Union is reportedly looking at these extensions as part of its antitrust investigation into the company and might eventually make Microsoft reveal more information about them.

Use APIs at Own Risk

On Aug. 28 Microsoft will also provide information about 272 previously undisclosed internal Windows interfaces used by Microsoft "middleware" components. (For purposes of the antitrust case, "middleware" is defined as any Web browser, instant messaging client, media playback client, or e-mail client that Microsoft includes as part of the desktop operating system; Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine; and certain client software that Microsoft merges into the operating system in the future.) Microsoft will release these interfaces as APIs in the Platform SDK and other places on MSDN and will make full documentation available for them. No special license will be required to access or use these middleware APIs.

These APIs could allow ISVs to better integrate their applications with the Windows shell. They might also make it easier for applications to use non-Microsoft middleware (such as Netscape Navigator) for specific functions (such as rendering HTML).

However, developers should be aware that Microsoft hid many of these APIs not for any business reason, but simply because Microsoft's developers realized they were imperfect and had slated them for removal or alteration in future versions of Windows, and therefore did not want other developers to rely on them. If the settlement is approved, Microsoft must continue to reveal the relevant APIs for "major releases" of "middleware," but only for five years from the date of the settlement approval. Thus, applications built on these APIs could have a relatively short life.

Showing Good Behavior

Under the proposed settlement, Microsoft must reveal the network protocols as soon as the first service pack to Windows XP is available. This service pack is in beta and will probably be released on or shortly after Aug. 28. (For background, see "DoJ Compliance Shapes First XP Service Pack" on page 8 of the Aug. 2002 Update.) Thus, Microsoft had to license these protocols to avoid violating the proposed settlement if and when it's approved.

However, the proposed settlement does not require Microsoft to reveal the internal Windows interfaces (the APIs) until nine months after the settlement is approved. By announcing its willingness to reveal these interfaces before being legally required to do so, Microsoft is indicating to the current judge in the case that it can be trusted to completely and willingly comply with behavioral remedies. In the past, Microsoft opponents and other judges have argued that the company can’t be trusted to adhere to limits on its behavior, and that only structural remedies, such as breaking the company up, can keep its monopoly in check.

Resources

To apply for a license for the communication protocols that will be disclosed on Aug. 28, see www.microsoft.com/legal/protocols/.

To receive the NDA associated with the license, users must have a Passport with a valid, non-anonymous (e.g., not Hotmail) e-mail address.

After Aug. 28, a complete list of the new APIs Microsoft is disclosing will be at msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnapiover/html/api-overview.asp.

For a list of the 102 communication and interoperability protocols that are not covered by the Aug. 28 release, see www.microsoft.com/legal/protocols/protocols.asp.