Some analysts see the disclosure of the APIs as an important first step for leveling the playing field between middleware programs like Microsoft's media player and competing products from RealNetworks or MusicMatch, among others. "The release of the API information along with the SDK will allow software developers to tap into the full functionality of Windows Media," Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg said. "This type of broad support leads to the creation of ad hoc communities to provide features and functions not in Media Player natively and therefore helps build adoption rates" for third-party programs. But IDC analyst Al Gillen said it may be too early to tell what good the disclosure will do, if any. "The value this is going to have on the industry is going to be difficult to determine over the short term," Gillen said. "But you may look back five years from now and say, 'Microsoft released 270 or so APIs and 269 weren't that meaningful, but this one was picked up by this software company that leveraged it and became a superstar.' It's hard to predict what's really going to happen." The large majority of the APIs have to do with the Windows shell, eight relate to Windows Media Player and others relate to various other operating system functions, such as networking, messaging and Web services, among others. Independent security consultant Richard Smith said it would take some time to determine how many of the APIs were previously undisclosed or how beneficial new disclosure might be. "You have this big pot that Microsoft developers have been throwing stuff into," Smith said. "You've 10 to 15 years of history in there. In some ways it's like an archeological dig to figure all this stuff out." Even if some third-party developers find gems in that dig, many users might wait some time to realise the benefits, analysts say. "It's certainly not something that's going to affect the rank-and-file users until we start seeing applications that utilise the APIs," Gillen said. But some developers criticised Microsoft's disclosure as being too limited. "There are still many undocumented interfaces, some of which are essential for certain types of applications," said Henk Devos, a software developer who specialises in undocumented shell APIs. He used as an example the way Internet Explorer handles the file transfer protocol (FTP). "Other vendors do not have the information that is necessary to implement this in the same way, or to implement other protocols this way," Devos said. "I have disclosed this information myself and am using it in my Registry Explorer application." Devos also chided Microsoft for releasing as undocumented about a dozen APIs he has had information on since 1998. He said he expected to find more such APIs after closely examining the list. Smith also wondered about the 900 or so ActiveX controls, many of which he suspected should be disclosed under the terms of the proposed settlement agreement.
Think it's all over? The antitrust case against Microsoft can still go back the to Court of Appeals, and then there's the European Commission's investigation... See ZDNet UK's DoJ/Microsoft News Section for the latest headlines.
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