Open Source Versus Open Standards: Contrasting Concepts and the ‘Interop’ Impact

Microsoft Corporation

5/08/2008
(Original Publish Date: 1/15/2003)

A great deal of confusion, both within the software industry and among consumers of software, surrounds the terms “open source” and “open standards,” and the concepts, policies and licensing implications these terms represent. At the outset, there is disagreement as to the meanings of the terms themselves. This problem is compounded by liberal use and widespread misuse, both unwitting and deliberate, that cloud the conceptual framework and frustrate efforts to formalize the vocabulary. With the terminology so difficult to pin down, it has become all too common to find the label “open source” improperly linked to, or confused with, the very different notion of “open standards.”