Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 01:19:22 -0400
From: "Eric S. Raymond" <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>
To: lwn@lwn.net, editors@linuxtoday.com, malda@slashdot.org, x@linux.com,
Subject: Microsoft is right, for once

Indeed do we live in interesting times.  Today Microsoft, the Borg
from Redmond, is on the right side -- the open-source side -- of a
dispute about network standards.  I expect water to begin flowing
uphill any second now, and look out for pigs on the wing.

For those of you who have been living under a rock somewhere, the
story to date is well summarized on ZDNet [1].  The basic plot is
this: some time back, AOL published on the Web the protocols for its
hugely successful Instant Messenger (IM) service.  Their stated
intention was to make it possible for Unix (and especially Linux)
developers to write clients for IM.  Which said developers indeed did.

And all was well until last week, when Microsoft and Yahoo and several
other companies launched IM clients. AOL promptly tweaked its protocol
to lock them out -- and then repeated its action when Microsoft's
programmers found a way past the block.  AOL has declared that it has
people monitoring Microsoft and will continue to take active measures
to block Microsoft out of Instant Messenger's patch of cyberspace.

Microft has fired back by declaring itself for open messaging
standards, and attempting to organize an industry consortium to
pressure AOL into conforming to the published IM protocols.

Microsoft's stance in this brouhaha is, of course, hypocritical to the
point of being nauseating.  In the past, Gates's minions have been
notorious for sabotaging and corrupting open networking standards at
every possible opportunity, and Microsoft's own "Halloween Documents"
[2] explain why with almost brutal frankness.  If your goal is to
maintain a monopoly, jack up prices, and limit consumer choices, then
you can't live with open standards -- a lesson AOL seems to have just
taken to heart.  

Now, you may think I'm harshing on Microsoft too much here. If so, you
can refute me instantly by pointing me at the Web page where Microft has
published the wire protocol for its Exchange message servers.  Hey -- 
turnabout is fair play.

But.  But.  When all is said and done, Microsoft is right on this
one.  Their intentions may be predatory, but if the history of open
source and the Internet is any guide, we should back them to win this
fight.  Why?  Because once an open standard becomes entrenched,
asserting the kind of control that Microsoft ultimately wants over it
is very hard to do.  Thus, for example, the failure of MSN to subsume
the open Internet.

If we in the open-source community really believe in the power of
openness and peer review and our development model to give users
better choices, then we have to believe that an open standard will
lead to good outcomes even when Microsoft is pushing it.

Also, this fracas gives us a perfect opportunity to refute the people
who write off Linux and the open-source movement in general as an
"anything but Microsoft" manifestation of resentment.

So say it loud and say it proud: Microsoft is right about open
messaging, and deserves to win this battle.  Say it even if it
makes you gag (it took me several tries, I can tell you that).  

And win it they almost certainly will; I wouldn't bet money on AOL's
block holding for as long as another week.  AOL's ability to tweak its
protocol is sharply limited by the fact that it can't break
compatibility with the huge existing base of clients (the whole point
of the exercise is to keep them, after all). So AOL can't invent a new
protocol, just twiddle some limited set of parameters on the existing one.

All Microsoft has to do is keep a couple of bright network programmers
chasing AOL through the paramater space, extending the adaptive
capability of the Microsoft client.  Sooner or later (probably sooner)
AOL will run out of dodges, and Microsoft will ship a client with all
the adaptive capability of the existing AOL programs.  Game over.

And if Microsoft isn't smart enough to do that, someone in the
open-source community (a group very good at reverse-engineering)
will be -- at which point Microsoft will get to use the results.  So
AOL loses either way.

So congratulations, AOL.  You've taken a black eye in the press.  You
look as much like a villain and an obstruction as Microsoft ever did.
You've managed to alienate the Linux/Internet/open-source community --
the largest, longest-established, and most creative tribe of
programmers on earth.  Indeed, you've made a good start on pushing
that tribe into helping your worst enemy.  All for an advantage
that will probably evaporate in days or weeks!

After stupidity like that, I wonder what you do for an encore?

[1] http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2301773,00.html?chkpt=hpqs014

[2] http://www.opensource.org/halloween/

(Reproduce and redistribute freely.  On the Web, map *foo* to <em>foo</em>)
-- 
		<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr">Eric S. Raymond</a>

"The bearing of arms is the essential medium through which the
individual asserts both his social power and his participation in
politics as a responsible moral being..."
        -- J.G.A. Pocock, describing the beliefs of the founders of the U.S.