e-mail, photo editing, and movie making, as was done with Windows Vista,
CNET News.com has learned.
The software maker included Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Mail, and
Windows Movie Maker as part of Vista, but later chose to offer separate
downloadable Windows Live programs that essentially replaced those
components with versions that could connect to online services from
Microsoft and others.
Microsoft told CNET News late Monday that it has decided to remove those
features entirely from Windows 7 and instead offer only the
service-connected Windows Live versions as optional free downloads. Earlier
on Monday, Microsoft had declined to say how it was handling things.
In a follow-up interview on Monday, Windows Vista general manager Brian
Hall said Microsoft made the decision to remove the tools from Windows for
several reasons, including a desire to issue new operating system releases
more quickly than it has in the past. The move also removes the confusion
of offering and supporting two different programs that perform essentially
similar functions.
"It makes it much cleaner," Hall said.
Lastly, he said, making the Windows Live tools completely separate from the
operating system paves the way for Microsoft to work selectively with
specific partners.
"We can do things with specific partners to enable really great experiences
that might be hard in Windows," Hall said.
Antitrust rules make it hard for Microsoft to tie operating system features
to specific services.
Microsoft last week rolled out the latest "Wave 3" releases of its Windows
Live programs, adding Windows Live Movie Maker to the mix of programs,
which includes Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Mail as well as
blogging tool Windows Live Writer and instant messaging program Windows
Live Messenger. While Windows XP and earlier releases had an instant
messaging program built in, Microsoft took out that feature in Windows
Vista.
Source : Cnet :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10048142-56.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.0
