Microsoft and Samba?

According to this article at Information Week, Microsoft and the Samba team have cut a deal to improve the compatibility between Samba and Microsoft's operating systems. This 'deal', unfortunately, is not without its pitfalls. The deal that the Samba developers had to make was to pay $10,000 to Microsoft for a 'license' and also agree to not disclose the protocols listed in said manuals.

Unfortunately, Samba is Open Source. This means, however, that even when the Samba developers roll these code changes in, the code will be visible as open source. So, I don't see exactly how this deal is going to work. If the terms are not to disclose the protocols, then they can't keep Samba open source. Or, alternatively, they have to build binary modules to be distributed with the source that will be compiled in when the final source is compiled. The other option is that they no longer make Samba open source. Frankly, hobbling Samba's open source status strictly to fulfill Microsoft's deal just doesn't seem right even if it makes the software more compatible.

Ultimately, I'm just not seeing the benefit that this deal has to the open source community. Should the Samba developer team include the code in the source and also keep it all open source, then the developers will have violated Microsoft's agreement. If the Samba team eliminates the open source status of Samba, that will hinder many people's ability to see the code and modify it themselves. Personally, I'd prefer them to keep the source open. If that means less compatibility, then so be it. If they have to close the source to keep the terms of the Microsoft deal, then I think they just spent $10,000 for nothing.

I'd be concerned by the motives behind this deal. It certainly appears that Microsoft wants control over Samba and this may be the first step to getting it. By inking such a deal, this means Microsoft will end up having very strict control over an open source product. This looks to me like the first salvo has been launched.