Windows client and server protocol specifications to come available to all

It's now official: Microsoft will open the documentation of its Windows protocols, including those used on clients and servers to share files. This was announced just moments ago by Steve Ballmer and company.

According to the press release, about 30,000 pages of documentation will be added to MSDN web site for everybody to see. This should happen no later than today. Later on, more documentation will follow.

Another part of the announcement is the increased openness of Microsoft's Office 2007 suite. Says the press release: "To promote user choice among document formats, Microsoft will design new APIs for the Word, Excel and PowerPoint applications in Office 2007 to enable developers to plug in additional document formats."

Sounds great to me!