RE: Moderately improved map of Microsoft tying evidence

["David E. Y. Sarna" <David@ObjectSoftCorp.com>]

  	>> there
  	appears to be no *legitimate* reason that Developer Studio
  requires a
  	complete installation of IE. Do you know of one?
  
  It's simple; Microsoft developed an application (IE) that has an
  embedded object model. Installing the application properly registers the
  components (ActiveX controls) and once registered, anyone can use them,
  including the applications you mention. Microsoft has not developed a
  separate application that has just the IE controls, and they want to
  ensure that anyone who installs IE has a good experience, so they permit
  others to ship the IE app only on an all or nothing basis. In fact, if
  you had enough knowledge of which components are actually needed by the
  two applications mentioned, then you could [legally] delete from your
  system what you don't want.
  
  The reason a fully version of IE is installed is legitimate indeed, to
  ensure that it works. Microsoft cannot test every possible combination
  of subcomponents that individual developers might need, and they want to
  ensure that what is shipped with their name on it will install and work.
  
  No mystery and no intrigue, just a vendor trying to give users a good
  experience.
  
  Regards,
  David E. Y. Sarna       davids@objectsoftcorp.com
  ObjectSoft Corp. (NASDAQ:OSFT)    http://www.objectsoftcorp.com
  433 Hackensack Ave., Hackensack, NJ 07601
  Tel.: (201) 343-9100    Fax: (201) 343-0056