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Professor Testifies Windows Is Modular, Separable
circlejtp writes: "Princeton University professor Andrew Appel said in written testimony that modular design is an accepted standard in the industry, and Microsoft has already created a version of Windows for interactive television boxes that has removable functions. The full story can be found on the Tacoma Tribune website." At issue is Microsoft's claim that separating Windows' components would cripple the OS.
Here is proof.
When will you guys understand? Windows has always been modular, in that it separates functions nicely into DLLs which export APIs and can be replaced or removed as needed. It's rather that as a standard part of Windows, many MS and non-MS apps use components from IE to do various things, like render HTML (including many non-"web" apps that use the HTML renderer as a quick way to have a nice UI), or do network stuff like HTTP queries without having to "reinvent the wheel" with each app.
If you remove IE (meaning all the dlls that form it, not just the stub executable which is little more than a front-end to the underlying HTML rendering and networking DLLs), sure the OS will still run and you could definitely still use it as a server, BUT a lot of user-level stuff like the shell and applications, not just IE, would suddenly break. So even if it were removed, you would need to have some sort of other implementation of the functionality that IE provides to other apps via COM.
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Pretty easy, depending on how you define Linux. The kernel is a monolithic kernel made from many modules. The rest of the system is just a bunch of programs that depend on various shared libraries. In this regard Windows is essentially identical, other than the fact that MSFT refuses to distribute various key components independant of particular applications, even though other applications use those components. This is why MSFT continues to maintain that Windows would be crippled if IE were removed. They are claiming that components such as the html renderer cannot be distributed without IE. This is contradicted by the fact that many applications use that component and no other part of IE.
MSFT uses COM to export various modules from programs like IE. All of these modules have well-defined interfaces that can be used by other programs. By definition these parts are modular, and have no dependenciels other than (perhaps) on other COM modules. Any spaghetti is hidden behind the COM interface. In the UNIX world we sort of do the same thing, in that code that is meant to be shared is put into shared libraries and usually packaged separately from the main application.
A well-crafted lie appears unquestionable - Dama Mahaleo
Who cares about a Windows without IE6? Let's start with a Windows that it's not illegal to sell as dual-boot Windows/Linux from computer shops.