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Chris' Rant- by Chris Wenham
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Shah Guido G

Copyright 1998 Chris Wenham
With apologies to Isaac Asimov

Have you ever wondered, with all that's bundled with Windows today, if that thing should ever capsize, collapse or implode upon the weight of its own self? If you have, then for a fleeting moment you were on the right track. The key to breaking the Windows monopoly is not to do anything at all to Microsoft. Let them "integrate" it with Internet Explorer, let them chuck as many dumb, fat and pointless extras with it, and let them force PC makers to take it all as a condition to licensing Windows. And also, let the Department of Justice keep tickling them with threats and lawsuits for a while -- so Microsoft keeps doing exactly what it's doing the way that it's doing it. Confused? I'll explain...

"You can't uninstall Internet Explorer!"

When Microsoft said that the two products, Windows and IE, were integrated together, they were sorta telling a half truth. To make themselves look as if they were being completely honest with the DOJ and the rest of the world, Microsoft took some routine updates for Windows -- bug fixes, new features etc. -- and put them in the same DLLs (Dynamic Linked Libraries, the primary method of sharing code in modern operating systems) as Internet Explorer, and vice versa. So deleting any file that contained Internet Explorer functions in it would certainly guarantee deletion of files needed by the rest of the operating system -- rendering the whole system inoperative.

This was the nonworking version of Windows that Microsoft initially made available after the court order to ship a version of the operating system without the browser. A proverbial "See! We told you so," and slap in the face of intelligent spectators everywhere.

Trouble is, from an engineering standpoint, it was a jaw-gapingly stupid thing to do.

"Millions of lines of code..."

...will be in Windows 98 and Windows NT 5.0, but just what kind of manpower does it take to maintain that monster? "Too many cooks spoil the broth" doesn't even begin to describe the problem facing Microsoft today.

Hundreds of programmers, millions of lines of source, and an approach to programming (placing everything into one giant product) that is the most ill suited for large numbers of coders to handle. How can they really do anything more to it now than to simply tack on more features - a job easier than fixing problems inherent in the structure itself? How loud do you think the bang is going to be, come January 1st 2000?

"Microsoft must be allowed to innovate"

And surely they will be, should they ever want to take advantage of that liberty. But bundling one program with another is not innovation. Acquiring a corporation to get your hands on a new technology is not innovation either. As can be seen on OS/2 today, in a comparison between the mostly-acquired products of Lotus SmartSuite and the homegrown ingenuity of StarOffice's components, the best results come when products were designed from scratch to integrate together. Internet Explorer is based on code licensed from SpyGlass, and they acquired the browser in a deal with Marc Andreessen's old school. How can they possibly hope to have a stable product when combined with an operating system that also has its roots in an eons old source code purchase?

Is there anyone really left who understands what's in there?

Waiting for a White Knight

Outside the hell that's to be endured by those who feel they have no choice but to subsidize a patchwork OS, OS/2 users might not feel the same pressure of Microsoft's crushing weight on them. And that might make it hard to understand what's to come next.

The integration, relative speed and lightweight footprint of StarOffice, compared to SmartSuite, would probably have mopped up the floor with Lotus had the company behind it not been so frustratingly hesitant to enter the market. Now Lotus has e-Suite, and is almost ready to head StarDivision off at the pass with it.

The same equivalent of StarOffice is needed in the Operating System market. The time is ripe, the opportunity is there, one more push and the combined weight of years of general protection faults, WinNukes, kernel errors, file system corruption and more will bring the whole plate of food tipping off the table and onto the floor below. Leverage the frustration evident in scores of Windows users, and the conversion to a new platform could move like a chain reaction.

Could OS/2 be candidate Number One for this job, is another OS better suited to pull the wool off the eyes of Windows users everywhere? Then tell me so, in our Hypernews forum.

* * *

Chris Wenham is the Senior Editor of OS/2 e-Zine! -- a promotion from Assistant Editor which means his parking spot will now be wide enough to keep his bicycle and a trailer.


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