EC staff leave Microsoft waiting as they head to the beach

Server APIs can wait

By Ashlee Vance in Chicago • Get more from this author

Posted in Servers, 15th July 2005 15:47 GMT

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The European Commission will delay its decision on whether or not Microsoft has adequately opened up server APIs so that workers can get in a few weeks worth of tanning.

An EC representative informed ZDNet that a decision would not come down until September at the earliest. The Commission has received feedback from competitors over Microsoft's proposed server API and royalties tweaks. It won't, however, review this feedback until workers return from their August vacations.

Microsoft and the EC have been engaged in "ongoing, open and constructive dialog" for quite some time since the body ordered Redmond to deliver a slimmed down version of Windows and to free up the server code. Microsoft's competitors have been busy peppering the Commission with advice on the server front.

In fact, a lawyer representing the likes of IBM and Oracle knocked Microsoft for profiting from its punishment. There shouldn't be a debate over how much Microsoft can charge for the APIs; they should be available for free, he argued.

Here's guessing the EC and Microsoft won't quite see eye-to-eye in September and that the matter will drag on and on and on. ®