>re: "Barry, by definition, you can not uninstall "bundled parts", right?"
Not exactly; in the retail products, installation of the IE4 desktop shell is an option which the user can select during the installation, and which the user can change in Control Panel/Add Remove software. OEM's get even more flexibility, they get kits from which to customize the installation, and these have more lattitude than the retail products.
IE4 is no more integrated than any of the other Windows 95 components that you can install or not install during Windows setup. As a browser, IE4 is truly a separate product. It is only the installation of IE4 as an active desktop that "integrates" it with Windows (95, and presumably 98), but this very feature is optional to both the retail customer and to the OEM.
What the judge was telling MS was simply that they couldn't take this option away, plus not only couldn't MS force OEMs to choose this option, but also an OEM who chose not to install the IE4 active desktop (in which case IE4 remains just a browser) also then had the option of not putting the stand-alone browser on the system at all, and/or of putting Netscape on the system as a browser.
Remember the Compaq "smoking gun" letter. Compaq was threatened, in writing, with being cut off from being able to license Win95 AT ALL, simply because they wanted to install Netscape on their computers (regardless of whether it was in additon to or instead of IE). That, in my mind, is clearly both anticompetitive and a violation of anti-trust laws, since the reality is that a PC vendor cannot exist without access to Microsoft operating systems.
By the way, my front passenger side airbag IS uninstalled (for the benefit of my two small sons and my short wife), and it is legal, since I did it myself (it would not be legal if a dealer or anyone else did it, however). It's unbelievably easy to do, less than 30 seconds and does not even require a screwdriver (just unplug a a very accessible connector), almost like they wanted to make it easy. I'd rather have a switch, for when other full size adults are sitting there, but not for $150, thank you. |
