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Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said on Tuesday it has posted online more than 14,000 pages of preliminary versions of technical documentation for underlying software code in its software programs.
The underlying code, or protocols, are built into Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
In February, the world’s biggest software maker, faced with regulatory concerns in Europe and customers struggling with complex computer systems, said it would publish information so rival programs can work better with Windows, Office and other major products.
Microsoft also pledged at the time not to sue open-source developers for development or noncommercial distribution of those software blueprints.
Now, with Tuesday’s disclosures, Microsoft said it will have published more than 44,000 pages of underlying code documentation to which it had been committed.
The release comes on the heels of continued scrutiny by EU authorities over anticompetitive moves in particular. In January, the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, launched new antitrust investigations into Microsoft to see whether the company broke competition rules to help its Web browser and its Office and Outlook products.
More recently, EC officials said they were looking into the company’s tactics in the contentious standards process surrounding OOXML, a development that follows an earlier probe begun in January regarding whether the spec is sufficiently interoperable with competitors’ products.
