Flutterby™! : Microsoft vs Kodak 2001-07-04 17:06:11+00

Microsoft vs Kodak

2001-07-04 17:06:11+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments

Via /.: As anyone who's ever gone through the hassle of trying to use non-Microsoft software to handle mime-types that the Microsoft software pretends to handle can attest, integration into Windows is a touchy thing. Now Kodak finds they can't register their own digital camera drivers.

The Kodak team felt double-crossed. They had worked with Microsoft and the camera industry for a year on a new photo-transfer standard that allowed Windows to recognize when a camera was plugged in. Now, Kodak felt, the standard was being used against Kodak and other digital-camera makers, because it favored Microsoft's competing camera software, embedded in the planned new version of Windows.

Try installing an MP3 player, like WinAmp, and let it associate itself with MP3 files. Continue to use WinAmp until the next time an update for Microsoft Media player comes down the pipe (automatically in most cases) and see what happens when you try to play an MP3 file. You'll no longer be using WinAmp.

Microsoft uses this trick throughout the operating system and even extends it to their Office products. They try to make life easier for the user by automatically associating their applications with different file types. But they take it further by having the apps re-associating themselves whenever they get a chance even if a third-party product has established the association.

This is very different from Apple's model where Apple's software usually gives up the association nicely. Of course, In Linux you pretty much have to manage the associations yourself which, albeit less user-friendly, provides exactly the results you expect.