DeMoN LaG wrote: >... > MS does not want you to use anything other than the web site (which > they can control) or their own software.
Sure, they don't want you to, but realistically they can't prevent it. <http://www.craigburton.com/2001/07/08> > When other software starts > supporting Hotmail, MS will change the interface and break every other > client just so you must use their software/web sites. No they can't. Not unless they can convince both Windows *and* Mac users to constantly upgrade to new versions of Outlook Express or Entourage every couple of months. (Remember, the Mac equivalent of Windows Update only has Apple software, not Microsoft software, so Microsoft can't use that route.) > They *want* you > to either use their software or view the web site, then they control > what you see and how you see it. Don't sound so pessimistic. What they want is not the same as what they can get. > Just as AOL wants you to use AIM so > you have to see their advertising. If anything gets popular enough to > start affecting the number of people using the real AIM, AOL changes > the protocol and kills all the other clients. Without forcing all AIM users to update automatically <http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/comment/0,5859,2830607,00.html>, the only way AOL can do this is by exploiting idiosyncracies or (as in one case) buffer overflows which their clients all *happened* to have but which third-party clients did not. That is much less likely to be possible with Hotmail, given the fact that Microsoft can only tweak the protocol in such a way that existing versions of Outlook Express for Windows *and* Outlook Express for Mac *and* Entourage for Mac would all still work. > Perhaps a little > underhanded, but it's their software, their protocol, their network, > they can do whatever they want. No, they can't. > If they want to require you sacrifice > a chicken before each IM you send, they can (though maybe not > legally...). MS won't let you use Mozilla Mail to access hotmail. At > least, not for long, you'd have to deal with constantly updating > Mozilla Mail to keep up with MS breaking it >... Repeating that claim over and over again won't make it true. -- Matthew `mpt' Thomas, Mozilla UI Design component default assignee thing <http://mozilla.org/>
