re: TNT
Your use of dollar signs to spell "MS" is very clever, it is as if you are trying to claim that Microsoft is a for-profit company, and is somehow motivated by profit. Yes, very clever indeed.
The point the article is making is that desktop search IS an OS function, or at least it should be (and has been in the past, for a long time). What would you think if you loaded an OS that had no capability to search for files and directories on the hardware? Would you go happily download whatever search software you want to run, or would you think to yourself that it might be nice if the OS included a search capability so that you didn't have to do that? What about Joe User? What if the average person got their new computer and could not search for anything? Would they even know that they can install a third-party search application, or would they just be irritated at the OS vendor for leaving out that feature?
I don't like the monopoly that Microsoft tried to set up with IE and Office. But searching your computer? Cmon, that is such a simple concept that it should definately be included in the OS installation, even tightly integrated with the OS. Next you're going to say that an OS should not include a calculator or text editor, because that's also userland software, and it's not the responsibility, and there's a monopoly, and waaaaaaaaa!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
