Embrace and Extend

Found this paragpraph in a Microsoft document (downloadable from the Microsoft website) which sets forth the embrace-and-extend strategy for the IEEE Internet Printing Protocol (IPP):

RPC Printer Connection through Web Browser — Preferred Method

[When printing over an intranet], Windows automatically creates an RPC true-connect printer connection. True-connect, or UNC, connections have many benefits over true IPP printer connections and should be used for intranet printing (local to the company) where the security setting in Internet Explorer can be set to medium-low safely. True-connect connections are supported through the Windows remote spooler, which is where the vast majority of Microsoft’s future innovation will be — in the RPC printer connection rather than the IPP printer connection state.

Microsoft technically support the IEEE standard, but – through recommendation and program default – direct their users to a proprietary interface that is rather similar to the standard interface. They plan to extend this proprietary interface in future, moving customers even further from the standard. I particularly admire the plausible muddling of “true-connect printer connections”, with “true IPP printer connections.”