Microsoft's proposed middleware plan--to hide icons that lead to Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and other apps--is due to arrive later this year as part of Service Pack 1 for Windows XP (news - web sites). As expected whenever the middleware issue is brought up, there's plenty of turmoil on the TalkBack boards.
"Sure, it's possible--even probable--that companies other than Microsoft would offer new modules to supply these functions. Software developers could then, presumably, use the services provided by these modules to bolster their apps," my colleague David Coursey wrote in a recent column.
"But all those middleware apps would have their own programming interfaces through which other apps and the operating system itself would access them. This means that applications developers would have to decide which of these programming interfaces to support--with no discernible advantage to users. In other words, developers would have to work harder just to stay where they are today," Coursey wrote.
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