NEW YORK -- Microsoft is willing to give its partners a peek at its code, but don't mistake that for going open source, a concept a Microsoft executive blasted in a presentation here Thursday.

Instead, Microsoft is pushing what it calls "shared-source" initiatives, which give partners limited access to Windows source code. The company remains opposed to the open-source ethos, and particularly scorns the popular GNU General Public License, according to Craig Mundie, the company's senior vice president of advanced strategies.

Mundie says Microsoft is opening its code by request of corporate customers, but access to Windows code was also ordered by the U.S. District Court in the antitrust ruling against Microsoft last June. That order has been set aside while the case is appealed.

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In his speech at New York University's Stern School of Business, Mundie outlined the company's new initiatives. He also argued that many developers using the General Public License don't really understand what they're getting into.

The GPL requires that programs developed using code covered by the license also be available for no more than the cost of distribution. The license is『an attempt to create a vortex that pulls a lot of other peoples' intellectual property in ... (and) ultimately undermines intellectual property,』Mundie said.

By contrast, Microsoft's strategy is to allow a few select partners access to its source code, without letting them modify the code in any way, Mundie said. This satisfies most customers, who are far more interested in interoperability and open standards than open source code, he says.

Microsoft is expanding its Enterprise Source Licensing Program to 12 additional countries, Mundie says. Within the year, Microsoft will begin licensing its Windows source code to top-tier software vendors, he adds. In late 2001, the company expects to begin offering academic site licenses for Windows CE source code.

"You'll hear people talk about open source and open standards. These two things are orthogonal. If history is any guide, the open-source environment actually has a tougher time generating standards because of the fragmentation," he said.

Mundie outlined Microsoft's history of shared software, from its decade-old program of licensing Windows source code to about 100 academic institutions to its much-publicized recent initiative to allow key enterprise customers access to the code.

Mundie defended Microsoft's unabashedly for-profit model, and compared the open-source movement to the recently burst dot-com bubble. Companies such as Red Hat and VA Linux Systems, which try to make money from open-source software, are giving away their most valuable asset, he said. Companies that hope to profit from ancillary revenue streams are following an unsustainable business model, Mundie said.

He said Microsoft walks a "tightrope," balancing customer need for access to source code against the company's fiscal interest in keeping that code secret.

Mundie aimed particular venom at the GPL, saying it creates a walled garden around its software that prevents future proprietary expansion and distribution. Several other large software companies have tentatively embraced the license--notably IBM, which recently earmarked more than $1 billion for Linux development.

A representative of the Free Software Foundation, whose leader created the GPL in 1984, refutes Mundie's notion that companies supporting GPL are naive. For example, Cygnus Solutions, acquired by Red Hat in January 2000 in an all-stock deal then valued at more than $670 million, successfully sold software released under the GPL, points out Brad Kuhn, FSF vice president.

"We designed the GPL to defend the freedom of users and programmers" to copy, modify, and redistribute code at will, Kuhn says. "(Microsoft's) aim is to take away those freedoms."

Mundie also promoted Microsoft's .Net initiative as part of a coming "third phase" in the Internet's evolution. From initial focus on the hardware "plumbing" to the "publishing" phase of e-mail and browsers, the Net is entering a phase of『new constellations of computers, devices, and services that work together,』according to Mundie. He expects new applications will emerge on those new Web platforms--steering clear of GPL, however.

"We should be clear: We are not in the business of giving away our sources or giving away our software products. We are a business, and we want to create value over time in that business," Mundie said. "Fundamentally, the thing that informs our choice is this belief in protecting intellectual property."

None of this rhetoric is new for Microsoft, said Chris Le Tocq, principal analyst with Guernsey Research.

"This is really a campaign to try to persuade developers and customers not to move in the open source direction," he says. "Microsoft is feeling threatened by the open source movement and has customers and enterprises that are looking to take advantage of code sharing."