Declawing Windows: Impossible?

hyrdra writes: "This story on CNN seems to indicate the intentions of the nine remaining states in the ongoing anti-trust case against Microsoft: to produce a stripped down version of Windows that will allow 3rd party vendors to insert components such as browsers, media players, and IM clients. While this may not be news, Microsoft's defense is. Microsoft defends the solution by remarking Windows was not designed to be a modular system, and the current operating system is highly dependant on core technologies like IE and Windows Media Player. Removing them would result in a slower, much-less user friendly Windows that would be a support nightmare."

Comments

have that version...

[westcourt_monk]

a slower, much-less user friendly Windows that would be a support nightmare

That about sums up windows now. For it to be faster, user friendly, and easy to support one must strip out all the crap.

Of course having a zillion different flavours of Windoze might be a bad idea but forcing them to think modular is a good idea (I suspect they do anyway). Will anything really change?

A Possible Solution

[Alien54]

The cartoon User Friendly had a perfect answer to this just a few weeks ago:

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20020310

Which, of course, simple undoes all of the things MS has done that were not quite legal.

Fine MS for every lie they tell....

[3seas]

And they won't be worth much, certainly not billions...

Now isn't that all anyone really needs to know about MS?

Along with the question "Do you think Lying is OK?"

It doesn't really matter

[rant-mode-on]

It doesn't really matter if Windows installs can be made more modular (I say more modular, because the last time I installed it it asked loads of questions about what I wanted install). The reason it doesn't matter is because MS will just release versions without IE, Media Player etc, and then force you into installing them later:

• "Notepad requires Windows Media Player to run. You must intsall Windows Media Player to continue. [Install] [Cancel]"
• "Office requires a totally unrelated piece of MS bloatware. You must intsall some more bloatware to continue. [Install] [Cancel]"
• "Blue Screen of Death requires Internet Explorer to run. Internet Explorer is an essential part of our BSOD technology, you will not get any BSOD's unless you intsall Internet Explorer. [Install] [Cancel]"

Re:So they are saying is "punishment hurts"?

[TandyMasterControl]

Ah yes, the you-can't-punish-me-it-might-hurt defense.

I hope the judge is equally familiar with the ancient Anglo-Saxon legal concept of "tough shit" and its corollary, "shoulddathoughtofthat".

(So do Microsoft get three strikes before they incur the ultimate & everlasting sentence and where do we start counting? Stacker? Bristol? Dr-DOS?)

Huh?

[MikeJ9919]

"...a slower, much less user friendly Windows that would be a support nightmare."

How would that change things? Sounds like Windows to me.

The dumbest question I've ever heard

[Ilan Volow]

"How should state/federal governments, you know, the guys with all those billions of dollars of purchasing power who probably make up 60% of microsoft's entire user base, punish microsoft? There must be some way that these people, with billions upon billions of dollars and a public obligation to go with the lowest bidder, reduce Windows' dominance, but oh whatever can it be?"