Office UI Licensing and The Ribbon Widget
This will not be a long post, but I want to point this out as it may be important. I know some are using the Ribbon Widget in their applications despite the “Alpha” state that it is in. This is of course great, but I want to make sure people are aware that Microsoft are quite proud of their Ribbon (which I think they should be), and as such, they want to know about any application that uses a “third party” Ribbon.
What does this mean for you, the user? Not a whole lot, except that Microsoft wants to know that you are using a “ribbon look-a-like” widget commercially and they want you to get a license. They have a site set up where you can license the Office UI (which includes the Ribbon), so if you must, you probably should read through it and see how it applies to you. I believe it’s free, but I haven’t taken deep look at it yet. The link to this is http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa973809.aspx.
And another interesting Ribbon related link is something Tom Schindl just sent me, which is a Bugzilla entry for a request to add the Ribbon API to SWT. You can find that here: https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=90145. I think it would be fantastic as then it would be native and not custom drawn like the current Ribbon.
2 Responses to “Office UI Licensing and The Ribbon Widget”
Stephan H. Wissel - August 8th, 2009
The M$ ribbon is a (well designed and polished) rip-off of UI research done by Lotus years earlier (the product was called eSuite). I don’t think that M$ licence conditions would stand up against scrutiny. Have a look: http://www.geniisoft.com/showcase.nsf/archive/20061129-1157
Carl Tyler - August 8th, 2009
You shouldn’t have to tell Microsoft you are using a ribbon style menu, as something existed before it that looks the same. Tell anyone that asks you are using an IBM eSuite infopanel from 1998…
http://www.iminstant.com/iminstant/iminstant.nsf/d6plinks/CTYR-6GEK8X
http://www.iminstant.com/iminstant/iminstant.nsf/d6plinks/CTYR-6GGUCY
http://www.geniisoft.com/showcase.nsf/archive/20061129-1157
Leave a Reply