Following widespread scepticism of Microsoft's motives for developing its trusted computing platform, the software giant this week moved to reassure the software community that Palladium will not be limited to Microsoft's platforms.
Although Microsoft has said it will publish the source code for Palladium, free software and open-source advocates are concerned that licence terms will prevent non-proprietary software from using the application programming interfaces.
Speaking to ZDNet UK, Microsoft Palladium group product manager Mario Juarez said it is still too soon to say what licence will be used for Palladium interfaces, but indicated that it would not necessarily be as restrictive as past examples. "We do realise that we are an important company and that we have a responsibility to the industry. The goal is for as many people as possible to be able to take advantage of what we are talking about here. We are not trying to drive this as a Microsoft-only initiative."
Juarez was responding to criticisms that the Palladium initiative is in part designed to lock out other platforms -- in particular Linux and other open-source and free software operating systems. Juarez admitted that Microsoft's track record of making its platform hooks -- or application programming interfaces -- available to third parties had created a suspicion in the open-source community.
In late March, Microsoft published a document that outlined how third-party developers can use Common Internet File Sharing (CIFS), a protocol developed by Microsoft that specifies how Windows PCs share files with servers. Although publishing the document should have made it easier to write software that incorporates CIFS, it contained a crucial restriction that prohibits using information in the document to build software governed by the General Public Licence (GPL).
Some believe that any licence connected to Palladium will follow a similar route. "People are right to be suspicious," said Juarez. But, he said, "it puts us in a difficult position having to say we don't have all the answers yet because that invites speculation and suspicion, but to say we have all the answers would bring other concerns."
Despite the platitudes, Juarez did add a caveat. "We are talking about Microsoft intellectual property and we will take steps to make sure this is not plundered," he added. The main consideration for Microsoft, said Juarez, will be integrity (of the Palladium software), and while it may be possible to achieve this through a consortium, Microsoft will not pursue such a path if it feels that integrity is being compromised. "The technology we build has to be truly good technology that has integrity. That is where we will make our stand. We will not sacrifice integrity of the Palladium platform," he said.
