Barry,

This is not directed you <s>...

>And what if the customer refuses to install IE4 or the company already has a non-IE browser that it's standardized on?

If they refuse to install it - screw 'em. If you're building an application
that uses IE and they refuse, well, then somebody made a bonehead call to
develop the app that way in the first place.

I'm really tired of that argument by some IS type going - 'we're not instaling
IE because it's MS. We'll go to Linux too in a couple of months. And run on
Oracle platform and spend millions of dollars where Win would've dnoe it wiht
10k. hu,hu,hu.'

IE is much more than a browser and that's primarily why it's part of the OS.
The benefits of browser integration into applications alone should make
anybody needs an application discard that flawed attitude above. Maybe if
NS (or who else?) provided actual support for this type of integration with
their products there might be a point to argue, but when's the last time
a NS browser was embedded in your app?

If they've standardized on another browser, fine - IE can live just fine with
another browser. The Redistribution kit from MS lets you install the IE
subsystem without actually exposing a browser link anyway or making it the
default browser.

DCOM can be installed with IE on Win9x. NT doesn't need any runtimes since
it's part of the OS. Win98 also installs DCOM by default.

+++ Rick ---