>>> The more MS gets away with this crap, the more stupid we allow ourselves to become.
>>
>>Yeah, because it's not like it had to do with a legal settlement or anything.
>
>Just like Java was a "security" concern too, right?
>
>Come'on Mike... The implications of this are enormous.

Jeff,

If I understand the Java 2 specifications correctly (from the "Java 2 Bible" by Walsh, Couch and Steinberg), Java applets can only communicate with the server and not the host. If so, and I'll admit to being a rank newbie on this, it would seem to me that any "security" concerns would have to be connected with the VM and its implementation and not the underlying OS.

Further, AFAIK, neither the Netscape nor IE browsers fully support the specification. Again, this is according to the above mentioned book.

Given the recent legal wranglings, much of which centered around the integration of the browser technologies into Windows, it would seem to me to be a prudent thing to do to exclude the VM from Windows XP. Further, it would seem far more appropriate, if Microsoft were to bundle the VM with anything, that it would be the browser.

Just my take.