Evil Empire, Cambridge Division

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True to style, I've stolen the other side's idea.. We'll have this thread hold the questions from the Microsoft team.

A few suggestions for starters:

How integrated is the most recent version of the IE "Win95 Upgrade/Feature" into Win95 proper? Of the previously discussed A-B-C-D file-set examples (along with C' and the like), which is the most accurate? To refresh those examples, here are several possibilities: Win95 is the set A-B, IE the set C-D. 1: When installed, nothing substantive changes -- there are only additions (so new set is A-B-C-D) 2: When installed, IE changes Win95 (new set is A-B'-C-D). 3: When installed, Win95 changes IE (new set is A-B-C'-D). 4: When installed, they both change each other (new set is A-B'-C'-D)

I would be curious to hear their opinion on this Java matter, as well -- is Microsoft polluting Java or optimizing it? (or both..)

that's all for now, david

-- Anonymous, October 13, 1998

Answers

Integration

I would be interested to know what gains to functionality MS obtains by integrating IE with Windows. Is there a synergy beyond a mere code sharing?

-- Anonymous, October 13, 1998

Integration from code-perspective

If we are looking at integration purely from a code perspective, I would like to see a list of files that the OS shares with the web browser*, the function of these shared files, and the reason that they share the same files.

I would also like to know whether MS rewrote any shared files when it added the browser and what the extra lines in the code do (i.e., do the changes to the code relate to browser functionality or were they made purely for OS reasons, such as accomodating a new type of hard drive)?

* One problem with a file-based definition is that we could have trouble defining what is IE and what is Windows. I think we have to revert back, in part, to a functionality definition and say that the IE files include the files which are used to view HTML, .jpg, .gif, .mpg, .avi, etc. as well as the files used to communicate with servers in the HTTP, FTP, etc. protocols. As I think through this definition, I realize that the browser itself is an integrated product, combining code that can handle HTML and HTTP for the web, as well as other Internet protocols, such as FTP and newsgroups.

-- Anonymous, October 13, 1998


Win95/Win98/IE

First of all, I would like to clarify our position on "stealing" the other side's idea. We certainly did not steal it. Rather, we merely borrowed it, embraced it, and enhanced it, all in an effort to pose the best questions possible.

Now, on to the possible questions. I am curious how the IE that comes bundled with Win95 is different from the implementation in Win98 (if at all)? Are they "integrated" in the same way? Is it harder to remove IE from Win98 (and how so)? I know this is open-ended. Perhaps someone else can help narrow the questions and make them more specific. I am not quite sure what answer might be helpful to Microsoft, but it would be nice to know what we are dealing with.

Alan

-- Anonymous, October 13, 1998


Non-integration questions, does DOJ's browser/JAVA story make sense?

Aside from integration, we should ask whether the tale that DOJ is telling (that the web browser and Java could become the new end user interface and "platform" for ISVs -- making OSes interchangeable) makes sense.

So we should ask the experts questions about whether this is technically feasible. For example, is it likely that Java could ever run at a fast enough speed that would make it competitive with a platform-specific, non-interpreted language? Are their limitations in the browser which would prevent it from becoming a substitute interface to Windows?

-- Anonymous, October 13, 1998


Another question

A proposed addition to Chris's suggested questions below: If TV tuner cards became ubiquitous, wouldn't we expect the OS to contain drivers and dlls for dealing with their input signals and converting those to viewable format just as it now deals with video input? Isn't it logical for the OS to provide the same translation/viewability for HTML, the lingua franca of the web? Phrased differently, isn't web input just another form of external data input that we should expect the OS to handle, or is there some reason to treat it differently?

Who wants to compile and submit the questions tomorrow?

-- Anonymous, October 15, 1998



4 questions

It looks like you are the only one to post a response. And I think we've given our team plenty of time to respond. Why don't you work your question into the list that I have (perhaps adding to question 3 or replacing question 4?) and forward the list to Lessig tonight or tomorrow morning.

-- Anonymous, October 16, 1998

cont.

If no one has submitted the questions yet, I submitted them to Lessig this morning at 8:03 AM.

-- Anonymous, October 16, 1998

sounds good

I will stop compiling, then.

-- Anonymous, October 16, 1998

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