Court Fun — Is Gates Lying or Spinning?. Can IE be turned into an API? I thought it already was? VB'ers for years have been using IE's object model.
Can IE be made to be a module that can be pulled out of the OS? Of course it can. But, what is IE? Personally I always thought Microsoft was stupid for calling an HTML rendering engine Internet Explorer. Is IE just the Window? Or is it the rendering engine underneath?
Heck, AOL's client uses the rendering engine underneath (well, at least it did until this month). Microsoft's own help files use the rendering engine. So do other apps here and there. Having HTML rendering technologies built into the OS is a good thing, in my view. Do we get upset because Windows includes graphic display capabilities? Heck, NVidia might be mad. After all, imagine a world where you have to buy a piece of software from Microsoft or Apple, and then you need to visit a display manufacturer like NVidia to see anything on your screen.
See, I can see both sides to this argument. I can see where folks might say Microsoft is in the wrong and I can see where Bill Gates might say the OS and the HTML rendering technologies are inseparable. It's up to the judges to figure out who's version of the truth is correct. Personally, if I was on the court, I'd probably side with Microsoft on this one. Any OS that doesn't include HTML rendering technologies today would be pretty lame. Hence, if they are forced to remove those from the OS, my experience would be lessened. I — as a consumer — would be harmed. Why? Cause I'd need to go and download an AOL browser.
Which monopoly would I rather deal with? Bill Gates or Steve Case's? I can answer that one easily: I fired Steve Case from my computer seven years ago and I ain't planning on letting him back on any time soon. [Scobleizer Radio Weblog]