The European Commission has resisted efforts by Microsoft to make it abandon its report into open-source software, it was revealed this week. But the Commission was swayed into allowing a 10-day period for feedback before completing the report. Harnessing the opportunity to provide feedback, Microsoft produced 25 pages of arguments as to why the report — which quantified the benefits of open source to European organisations — should be shelved. The software giant also commissioned a respected university academic to back its case and enlisted the help of a trade association, CompTIA. The academic produced 45 pages of evidence supporting Microsoft"s case, while CompTIA wrote a 40-page submission.
The authors of the Commission"s report, headed by academics from the United Nations University in Maastricht, made several amendments to the report as a result of those comments, and comments received from other interested parties. But the Commission remained committed to publishing the report, according to its lead author Rishab Ghosh.