Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

The nonsense of removing IE

Author:Peter Wilkinson
Posted:4/29/2000; 6:37:58 PM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 4/29/2000
Msg #:16772 (In response to 16763)
Prev/Next:16771 / 16773

I find the suggestion to force the removal of IE from Windows utter nonsense. It begs the question Microsoft asked and the government failed to answer. What do you consider IE? Where is the line drawn? Why should users, who more often than not aren't technical, be forced to make a choice on which they often have no knowledge to base their decision on? Doesn't a reasonable default make sense? Doesn't the offering from the producer of the product make most sense as a default?

These questions apply if you are talking about retail end users. If what you are talking about is the OEMs then see below. If what you are talking about is corporate users, there is no question to ask, Microsoft allows total flexibility in delivering Windows to your users desktops as you see fit. I've been involved in heavy customisation of Windows for corporate employers using the IE admin kit, which does all you ask.

If what is really being pursued is the ability for a version of windows to be offered that removes the prominence of the IE app, that is any icons to get at it, and the replacement of that access to browsing with another 'browser' then I think that Microsoft would jump at that as a settlement. This is what the action started started about anyway.

This kind of resolution allows for the base services of a browser, rendering etc. to still be delivered with Windows, (every copy that is), for developers like myself that need that fuctionality in our own apps.

It should be noted that the technical ability to totally replace the browser component of windows with a functionally equivalent has always existed. This is what components and specifically COM is all about. If someone were to deliver a browser with the same COM interface as IE, (publicly defined in its type library by the way), then we could, if we wished, be using Netscape as the browser component in Windows. It is the inability or arrogance of Netscape to offer their rendering engine as anything other than a complete app that caused their downfall rather than any action on the behalf of Microsoft. If there is to be a version of Windows sans IE then this componentisation needs to be done anyway.

Hope that explains with something approaching clarity what I feel. Above all it seems totally foreign to me to require a regulatory resolution to a situation where a technical resolution already exists.

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