"David P. Schwartz" wrote:
> 
> As long as we're ranting on this subject...
> 
> Can sombody kindly explain to me how on the one hand Mr. Gates can assert
> with a straight face that the "browser" is an integral part of the
> operating system, and then explain how MS' Internet Explorer is
> more-or-less a "plugin" for Apple's operating system?  Like, if Apple had a
> choice of browser (didn't they used to use Netscape?) and they got $175M
> from Bill to influence their decision, does that mean that IE is an
> integral part of OS-X now?  In that case, does MS perhaps now "own" OS-X?
> 
> Oh, yeah, and what about their noise about being so paranoid about "open
> source" licensing and how it's a "cancer" and virtually forces you to open
> source EVERYTHING that touches it -- that would mean the fact that since
> OS-X is mostly open source (derived from BSD), it would force MS to open
> source the entire code base for IE!
> 
> I think people should start making requests of this (give out the source
> code for IE) to MS muckey mucks who bad-mouth open source.  If what they're
> saying is correct, they'll admit they have to give you the source.
> Otherwise, they might just correct themselves in public.
> 
-----------
1. It's easy to figger out how integrated IE is in Windows OS - an IE
crash pretty much makes the entire OS unstable. I believe they have
succeeded in tying it into the OS.

2. I suspect that Apple would do the same thing if they could.

3. OSX is not even close to open source, despite the lip service Apple
pays to open source. Yes, it's a mach kernel derived from BSD but it
ends there. Apple is just exploiting the open source code base to sell
their computers & OS - yes, they sell OSX - and I am quite certain that
you cannot d/l the source and compile it and run it yourself so how can
you figure that OSX is open source?

4. Apple isn't about to discourage any company from creating closed
source binaries to install on OSX platform. That of course includes
Microsoft who has paid Apple to be the default browser of Macintosh OS
and OSX.

I think the most interesting thing about Microsoft and open source is
that Microsoft has provided their Windows and Windows API source code to
some of the larger corporations in this country - undoubtedly because
they would be likely to lose these customers to open source stuff like
linux. I am quite certain that Microsoft feels the heat generated by
open source stuff like linux.

Craig