Posted to WebDesign-L on 6/28/00:

on 6/28/00 12:53 PM, Diane Poremsky wrote:
> my kids school is Netscape... v3 mostly. Why? Most of the systems are
> win95.. and have IE3 on them. It was a piece of crap... but since they
> rarely upgrade the systems except by buying new hardware... they won't
> rollout IE5. When they get new machines, unless they use a base image
> (doubtful, the tech dept is run by idiots) and use win95/NN3, they might
> finally get to see how much better IE 5 is. (By the time they get new
> computers, it might be IE6 or 7 though... )

It's likely that IE 6 and IE 7 will be a core component of Microsoft's .NET
initiative. They are betting heavily on the distributed application
framework model. All the Microsoft software you use will be updated over an
Internet connection, and you will have to pay a monthly or yearly fee to
keep getting the updates. In essence, this is a software subscription model.

When IE reached a 60% market share, many people, including myself, said that
Microsoft had won the "browser wars" and that if they wanted to remain in
that position, they will need to continue to give the browser away for free.
Regardless of whether they legally gained that market share is a hotly
contested point that is currently being played out in the courts.

The point we need to understand as web developers is that because Microsoft
has this dominance, our livelihoods are now closely attached to the antics
and behaviors of a software company that in the past has been known to lie
to their customers, their competition, and even their core development
community. From a web development perspective, is this a company that you
want to come to rely upon? How long before the "Microsoft screwed me over"
horror stories start showing up in this list? How long before we start
hearing about web developers who can't implement the functionality they need
and require because Microsoft's development processes and technologies are
inherently closed? How long before you get screwed over by Microsoft because
they all of a sudden want to own your market? Think it won't happen? You
might want to think again.

And because Microsoft's .NET software components will likely only run on the
Windows .NET application platform, it's likely that the competition in this
space will be very hot. All you have to do is look at how fast the
Application Service Provider market is growing to understand this. These
ASPs are the forerunners to what Microsoft sees as a network-centric
business model and future of home and office computing.

The point I'm making is that you shouldn't just "give up" and say that
Microsoft has won simply because they dominate the market. Sure, this will
make your job as a web developer easier today, but who's to say that two
years from now this very same act will come back to haunt you? Do you really
want Microsoft to control every aspect of your online experience, including
your web development and home computer use?

This is the torch that web developers are carrying, by supporting Mozilla
(regardless of how bad/convoluted it looks right now) and Linux. This is the
promise of the open source software movement, to free ourselves from the
Microsoft way of computing. To escape the clutches of poorly written
software, incredibly bad security models, and the IE-ification of the
Internet.

--
Cameron Barrett
Senior Information Architect
Alphanumerica, Inc.
http://www.alphanumerica.com (work)
http://www.camworld.com (play)