-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- There's a lot of finger waving going on over Microsoft's alleged predatory practices. I just want to remind the pro-MS folks of something. Microsoft has a documented track record of using undocumented entry points in their OS and Windows products. These entry points allow MS apps to do some things more efficiently than a competitor which uses the published API. MS has been known to rearrange these undocumented calls, resulting in sudden incompatibilities with competitors. (remember when Win3.1 came out and DR-DOS was suddenly unable to run Windows?) And in the MS countersuit against Stac Electronics, MS successfully argued that undocumented system calls were protected as Trade Secret material. While this isn't the grand-scale conspiracy some people seem to see, IMHO it's still predatory. Perhaps the call to separate the OS and apps divisions is a good idea. It would be interesting to see if Microsoft could maintain its edge in applications when it had no sub rosa advantage in OS access. - -- Roy M. Silvernail [ ] roy@cybrspc.mn.org PGP Public Key fingerprint = 31 86 EC B9 DB 76 A7 54 13 0B 6A 6B CC 09 18 B6 Key available from pubkey@cybrspc.mn.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMNlXShvikii9febJAQFoGgP/YtHdGqO8++MfZmk3h61F8SmJBfPYfa1R JlccdIP9BZHVXZseao9b9DqxLY1xRYkK6fWETielJaSjXZKam1WlYKFzL5E8Hf1z IXQmj7rCIIfvqvq3byJq8B3IUbT4UnTMNDAHVlNUwkzrcJ+py8czsWtNy15g3ahY NzYL8UsOtwI= =MpV3 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----