More genteel than pugilistic, the gloves are off, and it appears Mozilla developers will in fact come to table with Microsoft in an effort to enhance Vista interoperability with Firefox and Thunderbird.Delivered by Sam Ramji, director of Microsoft’s open source software lab, the public solicitation has created quite the speculative stir. Mike Beltzner, erstwhile phenomenologist at Mozilla, posted a response to Ramji’s feeler, accepting, in so many words, his invitation to Windows Vista Readiness ISV Labs.Beltzner’s response opens the discussion on certain particulars that may become part of the collaboration, including integration with Vista’s calendar and address book, its RSS data store and services, and the InfoCard identity system, as well as the “effects of running in the new application security mode.” Whether Mozilla will in fact have input on the menu remains a matter of conjecture, but what is notable and noble about this opening “salvo” is Beltzner’s attempt to extend Microsoft’s invitation to the open source community at large. His query regarding potential lab time for developers of Firefox-based projects such as Songbird, Democracy, and Flock will most certainly go unrequited. And yet his call for MSDN documentation, sample code, and common OS integration points cuts to the core of Microsoft’s Mozilla overture. A gauntlet has, in its way, been insinuated. And it appears to gauge how far Microsoft plans to go in opening the gates to its code. Software DevelopmentTechnology Industry