Re: [Full-Disclosure] IE Web Browser: "Sitting Duck"

[Barry Fitzgerald <bkfsec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

joe wrote:

> It is a core component of the current Windows UI, this is not the same as
> being a core component of Windows. Explorer is simply a UI shell that sits
> on the operating system known as Windows. The entire shell is replaceable
> and has been for a long time, since at least Win3.1. 
>
>  

I appreciate the technical explanation even though I knew, well, all and 
more of it.

You probably could have saved some time if you had read my relatively 
short message fully and seen that I did acknowledge that IE is not part 
of the kernel (which is really what you're trying to say) and that it's 
a part of MS Windows as a software distribution.  I'm fully aware that 
you can replace the shell in windows.

However, IE and the windows UI is a part of MS Windows as a software 
distribution and it's an essential part.  I dare say that if you remove 
the UI and DLLs of MS Windows, all you have left is a relatively crappy 
kernel with a lot of software that won't work. 

The MS Windows UI and Internet Explorer are a core part of the MS 
Windows operating system.  When you remove them, you break compatibility 
with many of the available programs and I'd venture to say that 
Microsoft would not support a highly modified system like the ones that 
you're describing. 

One can remove the Glibc from any GNU/Linux distribution.  I wish them 
luck trying to run programs that are dynamically linked. 

Is the Glibc a core part of Linux the kernel?  Of course not.

Is the Glibc a core part of the GNU/Linux OS distribution?  Yes, it is.

I think that for all of the technical explanations that you've given, 
you're losing the argument on one simple phrase: software distribution.

               -Barry

p.s. Come on people.  We went through the "what does an OS really 
constitute?" argument back in like 1996.  This isn't bloody kindergarten.

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