MS tools, apps require browser news.com
But of course they do- what else could "OS/browser integration" mean?
But Microsoft's IE tie-ins via DLL files go far beyond the hotly contested Web browser market. In some instances, Microsoft requires users of applications that take advantage of certain files to download IE even if an application does not have any connection to the Web, as in the case of a North Dakota developer's program.
Other internally developed Microsoft programs are tied to IE. Visual Basic 5.0, a developer's kit for writing programs in the Basic programming language, requires users to download IE so that HTML-based help files can be viewed, according to a Microsoft spokesman, even though those same files can be viewed using any other browser. Visual Basic 5.0 has been shipping since February of last year.
And so on, so on, so forth...
In other instances, third-party applications that use the functionality found in Windows are victims of Microsoft's internal development cycle. The latest release of First Aid 98 from CyberMedia, a program that fixes many Windows-based problems automatically, required users to have IE versions 3.02 or higher for the company's software to work.
Company executives said the glitch was due to the fact that Microsoft had not released an update to Windows 95 yet that included certain files when First Aid 98 was released in October. Users with the latest OS update--OSR 2.5--do not have to rely on IE, but only recent purchasers of computers will have this latest version of Windows 95.
Right, victims of Microsoft's internal development cycle, as are we all. Of course, if you get the latest OSR2.5, which just hit beta 3, it's not a problem- then you've already been assimilated by IE4, the Roach Motel California of browsers.
"The only way Microsoft is delivering these updated extensions is through IE 3.02 or higher," said J.J. Schoch, product manager for First Aid 98. "That's the bottom line."
Yes, Windows95 is officially frozen in time and space as of the retail release of 2 years ago, and everything since then is IE. Very clever, perhaps just a little too clever. We'll see what the Judge and his Special Master think about all this. Oh, I forget, it's all too complicated for mere mortals to comprehend, only Microsoft and its enlightened disciples could possibly understand what's really going on here.
Cheers, Dan. |
