Posted on 02/16/2005 1:18:53 PM PST by infocats
"update SAN FRANCISCO--Reversing a longstanding Microsoft policy, Bill Gates said Tuesday that the company will ship an update to its browser separately from the next major version of Windows.
A beta, or test, version of Internet Explorer 7 will debut this summer, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect said in a keynote address at the RSA Conference 2005 here. The company had said that it would not ship a new IE version before the next major update to Windows, code-named Longhorn, arrives next year.
In announcing the plan, Gates acknowledged something that many outside the company had been arguing for some time--that the browser itself has become a security risk.
"Browsing is definitely a point of vulnerability," Gates said"
Not to mention the fact that the EU said break it out or else!
OOOPS!!!!!!!! didnt bill gates argue that IE was part of the "operating system"
For those who are not computer edumacated: the Operating System is the software that contols the physical hardware in the computer. When you turn it on, the computer goes to one specific place to look for instructions. These instructions tell it what hard drive, video , modems, memory, etc. your computer has, and allow you to interact with it- whether through a command-line interface or a 'windowed' interface. The operating system controls memory management, hardware interrupts, and anything that makes the hardware work.
You could argue that Windows itself is much more than an operating system. But IE was NEVER part of the operating system and arguing that it was was a BAD BAD idea for microsoft, intellectually and legally.
And I am a huge Microsoft supporter.
So is it time for perjury charges and new RICO/Sherman suits against Microsoft and its employees? SEC action perhaps?
Or is it all well and good now that Microsoft got away with putting its competition out of business?
Or is it all well and good now that Microsoft got away with putting its competition out of business?"
As to the former, they already had their day in court so I don't expect that to happen any time soon.
As to the latter, I believe the evolution of open source software (Mozilla, phpBB, mySQL etc.) and the demands of the EU will force Microsoft to make big changes in the way that they do business.
I am not so sure about their day in court - that was settled based on the (boneheaded) assumption that IE was inseparable from the OS, as was testified to in court under oath IIRC. Given that, this amounts to a confession of perjury, and I believe that is grounds for retrying the case.
I'll have to get in touch with my sister in law, a research librarian. I'm sure she has access to Lexis/Nexis in order to find out the "statute of limitations" for perjury...or perhaps one of the legal eagles on this board can help out.
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