Microsoft made headlines yesterday for its overtures to the open-source software community, including some that practically cast the move as a surrender by the company. But a reality check seems warranted: What is the company really promising here?

As part of its broader plan to reveal more of its technological secrets, Microsoft issued a "covenant not to sue" open-source developers if their programs incorporate patented elements of its communications protocols -- the technology used by different Microsoft programs to interact with one another. Microsoft extended the same promise to non-commercial distribution of open-source software.

However, the company specifically excluded commercially distributed open-source software from the promise. That's a major issue in the eyes of people such as Michael Cunningham, the general counsel of Linux distributor Red Hat, who had this to say in a blog post yesterday:

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