Microsoft Drops 'Do Not Track' Default in Browser
“While our implementation of DNT two years ago in Internet Explorer 10 (IE 10) was welcomed by many, others voiced concerns, especially given that discussions were underway at the time to establish an industry-wide standard for user tracking preferences,” Bendon Lynch, chief privacy officer at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post. “Since then, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has continued to refine language to address how users express a preference regarding tracking.”
Lynch emphasized the W3C point that, in the absence of user choice, there is no tracking preference expressed. So Microsoft is updating its DNT approach to eliminate any misunderstanding about whether its chosen implementation will comply with the W3C standard. Without this change, Lynch said Webs sites that receive DNT signals from the new browsers could argue that it doesn’t reflect the users’ preferences, and therefore, choose not to honor them.
“As a result, DNT will not be the default state in Windows Express Settings moving forward but we will provide customers with clear information on how to turn this feature on in the browser settings should they wish to do so,” Lynch said. “This change will apply when customers set up a new PC for the first time, as well as when they upgrade from a previous version of Windows or Internet Explorer.”
Open Sourcing Windows?
A decade ago, there were headlines about how Linux and Microsoft Windows were in a tight race for enterprise customers. Seven years ago folks were asking if Linux could overtake Windows in the operating system wars. There have been all sorts of studies about how Linux is cheaper to manage than Windows-based computers. There have been heated security 
discussions around the operating systems.
Now, after all the campaigns against Linux, it seems Microsoft may be considering going down the open source road with its flagship operating system. Although this has been pondered in the past, it would nevertheless go against the traditional Redmond grain.
A New Microsoft
“It’s definitely possible,” Azure CTO Mark Russinovich said on stage at the annual ChefConf conference. Seattle-based Chef makes an open source platform for IT infrastructure , according to the Pugent Sound Business Journal.
“It’s a new Microsoft," Russinovich said. "Literally every conversation you can imagine about what should we do with our software: open, not open, services. It’s happened.”
It’s a new Microsoft, in part, because of its new leader. Indeed, Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s third-ever CEO, has made it clear that the technology industry does not respect tradition -- it only respects innovation. Nadella started his career as a member of the technology staff at Sun Microsystems before joining Microsoft in 1992, so he understands the company’s past -- but he’s leading the brand into the future.
“The opportunity ahead for Microsoft is vast, but to seize it, we must move faster, focus and continue to transform,” he said when he came on board. “I see a big part of my job as accelerating our ability to bring innovative products to our customers more quickly.”
Why Microsoft Should Go OS
Does that mean making Windows open source? Although it doesn’t appear that open sourcing Microsoft is going to happen this year, it may happen. Microsoft may be looking at how successful Google, Linux and Cyanogen have become with their respective open strategies.
“Once we started to look deeply at why are we operating the way we are, what has been holding us back, let's change. That kind of opened the floodgates that you see us now going everywhere with open source,” Russinovich said. “It’s no longer taboo. It’s actually encouraged in many places.”
The notion of open sourcing Microsoft is getting the attention of the technology media. But is it a good idea given how profitable Windows is?
“There has a been a pretty large open source effort in Microsoft for the better part of a decade now,” Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told us. “They are set up for it now and it creates better engagement with developers so I think it will be a good thing in the long run. So I actually think, long term, this would be a good idea.”