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Microsoft Busting Its Own Browser+OS Myth

Posted by timothy on from the in-sepa-rable dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Longtime Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley used her Redmond magazine column this month to point out that after years of arguing that the browser is 'inextricably linked' to the operating system, the company's current push to get users to drop IE 6 for newer versions, plus IE's separate release schedule, are disproving its own argument. From the article: 'Microsoft has insisted that its browser is part of Windows, and, ironically, that's coming back to haunt the company. Customers can mix and match different versions of IE with different versions of Windows. ... But Microsoft has done very little to get this message out there. I'd argue this is because it makes plain the absurdity of the company's claims that IE is part of Windows.'"

6 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Nobody believed it at the time by 91degrees · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And nobody believes it now.

    A possible alternative headline could be "Obvious lie from MS turns out to be a lie"

  2. Um no... by Dynedain · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's not a myth. After that valid argument was deemed insufficient to get out of the anti-trust lawsuits, Microsoft has made a concerted effort to detach IE from the OS.

    For example, since IE7, attempts at FTP gets shunted to Windows Explorer. Windows Update on Vista and Windows 7 no longer use IE. The help system uses Trident, but not IExplore.exe. Windows in the EU now prompts the user for which browser to install.

    IE is not inextricably bound to the OS because MS has intentionally been keeping it split. However, just because you can get IE removed/disabled, doesn't mean you can remove the HTML rendering engine (Trident). Just like stripping Safari out of OSX, doesn't completely remove WebKit (used in iTunes and a lot of other things).

    --
    I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
    1. Re:Um no... by xavierpayne · · Score: 5, Informative

      Microsoft told the court it was not possible in the retarded 30-90 timeframe the court demanded. It's taken years and at least 1 whole new OS cycle to get the level of detachment they have now.

    2. Re:Um no... by nine-times · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't think that anyone disbelieved Microsoft when they claimed that IE had been made part of the OS. No one is really calling that a myth. The supposed myth is that it had to be part of the OS, and that Microsoft could not make a meaningful distinction between the browser and the OS.

      Still, we can argue about whether Microsoft claimed such a thing or whether it really is a "myth".

  3. Re:Doesn't Matter by dkleinsc · · Score: 5, Informative

    It wasn't court system incompetence that caused Microsoft to get away with its antitrust practices. Far from it - they had gotten to the point of starting to decide sanctions.

    The thing was, shortly after the 2000 election cycle, the Justice Department decided to stop pursuing the court case, for some reason, and settled for a slap on the wrist.

    --
    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
  4. Re:Why should they care now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm afraid geology and deep web isn't something I have experience in, so any pointers would be helpful.

    0x3859FA23 0xDE29018E 0xB538DD86 0x76A1FFFF

    You're welcome.