Office gets a shell optimized for its use

Date: June 1993

Snippet
Schedule [June 1993]

Q2/94


 * Chicago ships.
 * Shell has limited extensibility. (See below for details)

Chicago + 6 months


 * Office ships with optimized shell
 * Shell adds features for optimal support of Office requirements. (See below for details)
 * Office includes many features that exploit the new shell.
 * New shell not initially available with Windows itself.
 * The Office shell should be approximatly a superset of Chicago shell features (although some components, such as the Tray, may be replaced.)

..

Sometime after Office ships


 * Cairo ships with a shell that is a superset of the Office shell.
 * Excludes any components that we choose to keep only for Microsoft apps.
 * Extend to use special features of Cairo

When Cairo ships


 * Enhanced shell added to Chicago
 * An alternative would be to add the Office shel back into Chicago when Office ships. This should still give Microsoft Apps a significant development lead.

Pros


 * Office gets a shell optimized for its use

the next shell
 * Office gets a big jump on competitors in cresting apps optimized for

..

Cons


 * Risk of ISV retaliation


 * Negative impact on corporate image.

..


 * Might require some extra work by Chicago to provide enhancements or hooks needed for eventual use by the Office shell. (we don't want to  have to ship new versions of GDI and User in the Office time frame)

.. The emphasis would be on creating an Office shell that has considerably higher value added than the shell in Chicago, both by  limiting what we provide for free in Chicago, and by adding features in  the Office shell ..

..

We could pull off the "UI Paradigm Shift" to document centricity possibly two years sooner than if we did not follow this plan .. and make our competitors' products look old ..

Full Exhibit
http://boycottnovell.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/px07377.pdf