Some of you guys see an OS like a shrink-wrapped product with all the stuff that can go into it. If real competition is wanted on the market (that's what DOJ wants), then a dominant OS needs to make sure, that it stays cheap and makes programs from different vendors run equally well.
Linux is such a system. It's so tiny, isn't able to do anything by itself, it needs external programs for doing X-Windows etc. This way, everybody can make programs for Linux with having Linux standardize HTML, File-sharing, CORBA etc.
Windows takes the approach of standardizing HTML interpretation by including a HTML viewer. It standardizes screen output by including a graphical user interface. It standardizes network objects by defining DCOM.
What makes Bill Gates the genius is, that he messes up the term "operating system", blurs everything so that nobody really sees how it could be done. The DOJ knows that, and they know how it can be done.
If the DOJ is smart, they won't stop until Microsoft is forced to make a clear line between operating system and applications. If it happens, though, Linux and Windows will suddenly be running the same programs making Windows a bad choice. Therefore, a split-up in the conventional sense is in fact a better solution for MSFT. |
