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To: Bearded One who wrote (3139)	5/14/1998 3:24:00 PM
From: Winter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4903

>> Kal, I think you're right that Microsoft is going to continue its move towards further integration. I also think, however, that this will not help Microsoft as much as everyone thinks, nor will it hurt Netscape as much as everyone thinks. Software design is an intensely difficult problem. Most of the advances in software engineering in the past years have been in the form of 'modular design' techniques, which has lead to 'object-oriented design'. Integration is the opposite of this.<< GUI integration (to the end-user) and code integration are two completely different things that you seem to be using interchangably. Microsoft is moving towards a modular design - heck you can integrate their browser into your own application using a couple dozen lines of code precisely because they have gone to a modular approach. Their browser is an object. COM, which Microsoft has invested so heavily in, is the best example of their object-oriented approach. The whole promise of modular design is that you can integrate things by just plugging objects together as needed (the modular spell check will automatically work with any app that needs spell checking capabilities rather than having to include a separate spell checker with each app). Modular design makes seamless integration possible, they are not opposites. >>How can they add a new cool function to IE without checking how it's going to effect every piece of code that IE is 'integrated' with? << Please read up on COM and you will have your answer - that's one of the major problems it was designed to solve. microsoft.com

To: Bearded One who wrote (3139)	5/14/1998 5:21:00 PM
From: Kal	Respond to of 4903

Bearded one, Basically, the more Microsoft integrates into the OS, the less innovation it can come up with later. I also think MS is trapping itself in a corner by doing this. At work we have a complete MS environment, from back office, DB, to browsers. Everyone is tired of the problems, Many hours per day spent solving problems and putting out mini fires. We're walking, I mean running, away from this environment. Win95 could be 'patched' to become 98 with a simple service pack. In other words, people who choose to upgrade are paying $100+ for a service pack. good luck.