Industry Mixed Over Changes To Windows

Microsoft

In a publicly released deposition on Monday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said such a policy would force Microsoft to support thousands of different versions of Windows and throw the industry into disarray. He noted that the prescribed "modular" version of Windows couldn't be done without impairing the operating system and that opening more APIs and source code would spawn massive "cloning" of the Windows OS.

After Ballmer's deposition was released, the District of Columbia and nine states--including California, Connecticut and Iowa--that opposed a November 2001 settlement in the case proposed a revised remedy specifying that Microsoft wouldn't be required to sell different versions of Windows. Instead, the company would have to sell just one "modular" Windows version where software features such as Internet browsers, media players and instant messaging could be removed.

Solution providers and industry analysts, however, said they're not sure if a modular version of Windows to complement the full-fledged Windows XP would be the right course for Microsoft customers and competitors.

"If the goal is to confuse consumers, having multiple versions of Windows will succeed," said Ken Winell, president and CEO of Econium, a Totowa, N.J.-based solution provider. "Requiring Microsoft to support multiple OS configurations is also costly from the support perspective, and I think Ballmer is right in sounding alarmist."

Larry Alston, executive vice president of product management and CTO of eXcelon, an XML database vendor in Burlington, Mass., said Microsoft's CEO and the dissenting states both make key points.

"Ballmer sees this as extra overhead to Microsoft's business no matter how you approach the problem--a modular or different versions of Windows. This is a major issue for a company like Microsoft that does the volume of sales that they have," Alston said. "But, technically, the states are correct in saying that the problem could be done with different, modular Windows. The states forget, however, that the bits alone do not make a product. The packaging, pricing, channel management and branding are all part of a product, and these other product components may have to be very different 'versions' to be compliant with the states. I lean toward Microsoft's position, but they are both right."

Others said Ballmer was exaggerating in his statements that a modular version of Windows is technically unfeasible.

"Microsoft is blowing this completely out of proportion. Modular operating systems are the rule, rather than the exception," said Anthony Awtrey, vice president of integration at Ideal Technology, a Linux solution provider in Melbourne, Fla. "All modern operating systems like Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris and even experimental and advanced operating systems like BeOS are developed using this modular method. And all of these operating systems provide a basic set of services and optional components for user interfaces, browsing, streaming media and desktop software.

"The problem that Microsoft has with making Windows components modular is that it requires fully documented APIs, interfaces and file formats," Awtrey added.

A slimmed-down version of Windows is both technically and commercially feasible, said Paul DeGroot, chief analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a newsletter based in Kirkland, Wash.

"Unfortunately for Microsoft, it lost a lot of credibility during the trial with moves like its manufactured video and delivering a non-functioning operating system when it was told to deliver a slimmed-down version of the OS," DeGroot said. " Given that Windows 95, a very fine product, didn't originally include a Web browser, a significant media player, conferencing software, instant messaging functions, and other such functions--most of which were provided by third parties at the time--it's hard to argue that it's necessary to include these functions in the OS. And testimony at the trial made it pretty clear that marketing and business issues--rather than technical ones--dictated many of these later inclusions. The notion that Microsoft could deliver a 'modular' OS from which features could be easily added or removed is not only possible, but Microsoft is actually doing it today: the embedded version of Windows XP, for example."

On Tuesday, after the states tweaked its remedy proposal, Microsoft requested a two-week postponement of the remedy hearing process, expected to begin March 11. In a U.S. District Court filing for the postponement, Microsoft said the "substantially revised" remedy proposal was ill-timed. "The nonsettling states timed the submission of their revised remedy proposal to inflict maximum prejudice on Microsoft," Microsoft said in the court filing.