On Wed, May 08, 2002 at 12:24:46AM -0400, bpreece1@tampabay.rr.com wrote:
> A few things though here.
>
> Bach, who has worked as a contractor for Microsoft, had created the new
> version using Windows XP Embedded,
> a commercial Where do you buy this version Wal-Mart, Staples, Best Buys,
> any Retail? Version of Windows designed for specialty devices such as cash
> registers and automatic teller machines. So this being a closed version only
> open to Hardware manufactures.
>
> This was a embeded version for Cash Registers and ATM's so these would
> never have a browser anyways.
> But he did not use a Version designed for regular PC's which Microsoft sells
> to the Consumer and Oem's.
> Thus it would not contain such stuff as media player or I.E.
>
> The bad thing is this verson probably do not even support x86 code as well
> which again Microsoft could say hey we don't include the
> browser in these versions anyways so there fore he has proven nothing. The
> court needs to see a Consumer version that will no longer work like Windows
> is suppose to with I.E. Removed because they use tons of shared resources as
> we know as dll Hell. So I do not think that
> this is such a big success because they story says he uses a version with a
> piece of code never made in there.
>
Maybe, but... Microsoft has continually whined about being unable to
strip out X, Y, and Z from Windows. This proves it _can_ be done. Second
thing is that Microsoft (even as recently as billg's testimony) has
proven that it has been consistently untruthful and misleading. Having
this strike against them, then having the judge see this demo... it
could work. You take this version of Windows (with the guts stripped
out), and make Microsoft publish its APIs, and someone else (Netscape?)
can come along and code a replacement for something like IE.
Perhaps a more pressing question in the end is: If Microsoft does come
out with a stripped down Windows and publishes its API, who's going to
want to fill it out with their applications? Is Dell going to put a team
of programmers on fleshing out this version of Windows? I could be
wrong, but I just don't think so. In which case, the judgment against
Microsoft would _sound_ good, but ultimately be impractical.
Anyway, it all depends on whether the judge buys it or not. And so far,
she's got a pretty good poker face.
Paul
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