In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Schestowitz
<newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote
on Tue, 20 Jun 2006 00:16:28 +0100
<1189135.UdHlT0tyU8@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Microsoft to embed Live services in Windows
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Microsoft's Live-branded online services don't end at the
> | Web browser. They extend deep into Windows.
> |
> | The company last week quietly showed off software for embedding its
> | Web-based Windows Live ID authentication services within Windows
> | applications. Windows Live ID is the successor to Microsoft Passport,
> | a hosted service for verifying a person's name and password for logging
> | onto Web servers.
> |
> | [...]
> `----
>
> http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-6085363.html?part=rss&tag=6085363&subj=news
>
> They are trying to pull another Netscape. This could take them to court for
> anti-competitive misuse of a monopoly.
Only if a competitor can be found with sufficiently deep
pockets, and actual damages ensue. (I'd have to find it
but IIRC it was a Supreme Court decision; the context was
different but it appears to apply here.) Fortunately,
Passport was a bellyflop, and Live ID doesn't look to be
all that much better, at least as a conceptual notion.
In any event, *everything* extends "deep into Windows", as
Windows is a bowl of slightly moldy soup. For instance, IE
has its HTML parser floating around somewhere in the broth
like a non-kosher spoiled matzoh ball, but it also depends
on a deeply embedded library piece, WinInet, which can be
used by *anyone* willing to schlog through the API's (it's
not difficult but it does have some mildly interesting
quirks [*]). There is another API called WinHTTP which
might replace it in the future, but I can't say for sure
at this point.
I've also seen IE pages embedded in an application.
This appears simple enough to do, as IE registers itself
as an ActiveX component. Nowadays, of course, most apps
are probably not going to bother; they'll just subinvoke
IEXPLORE.EXE or some such.
It's not too difficult for Firefox to replace the browser
component. However, Firefox cannot hope to replace
WinInet, and it's far from clear whether programs used to
finding a browser component using ActiveX will be able to
pick Firefox out of the soup. However, I'd have to look,
and web browsers are one of the few things Microsoft made
convenient to subinvoke.
[*] part of a project for $EMPLOYER to allow for communications
to one of our servers. Since Java at the time didn't understand
PAC files (it still doesn't), we went this route.
--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Windows Vista. Because it's time to refresh your hardware. Trust us.
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