>The way I remember it, IE is *not* to be on the OS side.

This is the way I remember it too.

>I'm not so sure that we adequately understand either the law or the complete evidence. I've just gotta believe that the decision-makers didn't make the call and set the proposed penalty lightly.

Do you seriously believe that a bunch of lawyers and bureaucrats who have only read about the way computers and software work, or had it abstractly told to them by a geek on a lawyer's payroll have a better understanding of the software market and software interactions than the average software developer? I have read a lot of informed public opinion on the subject, and yours is the first (coming from a technical person ) that thinks this.

>For instance, you know of my distaste for the quality of VFP documentation. It's clear that MS' documentation overall is generally of the same calibre.

Jim, have you ever looked at documentation coming from another software company? Have you ever gone to Netscape's site looking for information on how to control the browser? Have you ever tried to programmatically control Adobe Acrobat? Have you ever looked for the online documentation for Oracle's Developer 2000?

Do you subscribe to MSDN Library? (It's free you know).

I can tell you, as MS developers, we have it good. Whatever complaints that you have regarding the quality of MS docs would be multiplied 5 fold with the documenation for most other company's software. (There are exceptions, I'm sure)

>Now they have a MS Press entity that publishes much of the missing details (plus some, of course). Is this strategy *really* done to keep the base product's cost down or might it be to foster yet another profit centre?

You resent the idea that MS press publishes books that give even more documentation than what comes for free? I am confused.

>Or is using all the MS 'freebies' *really* good for your corporation when they may in fact lock you into the MS world?

Lock??? Who says you can't use Netscape? Who says you can't pay for any other product that competes with a MS freebie? How does a free product lock you in to anything? If it was inferior, why wouldn't you look to an alternative? How in the world can something free be bad for a consumers? I am further confused.

>Finally, I have read sufficient over the years to believe that MS *does* include code in its OS' to further its *own* application products and that this includes everything from performance to features/useability.

And this is bad why? If you, as an Office products developer, needed an OS function that would make your life easier, or your program perform better, and you could possibly get it in the next version of the OS by calling someone in the next building, wouldn't you do it? And why would that be unscrupulous?

Have you ever noticed that nearly all features that MS builds into its products, it makes available to other developers, writing apps in any language? Did you know you can use Agent, the little cartoon characters in MS Office, in your applications, even if your apps are written in Delphi? Nearly all of the ActiveX controls developed to make MS applications more user friendly or smoother looking show up in the next version of Visual Studio for anyone to use at no additional charge, even though MS probably spent countless costly man-hours developing them.

>One more thing - MS' recent commercials about stifling innovation. It seems to be commonly felt that MS hardly innovates *anything* but rather buys/licenses things and then embellishes them. So I truly have trouble believing that any split will stifle their "innovation-quotient".

Ok, even if MS never developed anything in house, but purchased it and integrated the technology into their own products, what's the difference? Who cares? The end result is still an innovative feature in your app or OS. Making MS's OS and applications divisions legally unable to cooperate would be a travesty, because the level of integration that we hav now wouldn't be possible. How does an OS developer know what an applications developer needs if the applications developer is not allowed to tell him?