Microsoft Tries to Appease EU With Blueprints

Microsoft plans to share the secrets of its most popular products, the company announced today, in an effort to satisfy EU regulators who want the software giant to improve its interoperability. The European Commission did cautiously applaud the move, but noted that Microsoft has already made at least four similar statements, to little effect, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Microsoft also promised not to sue non-commercial open source developers, to lower the royalty rates for its patented code, and increase the file format options in its Office suite. Microsoft struck a deal with regulators in October to give open source developers access to its interoperability blueprints, but since then the Commission has launched two new investigations. (More Microsoft stories.)