Internet Explorer Administration Kit

[Jay Ward]

> I have to give in to the Microsoft folks in two ways ...
> first, I am switching from Netscape to the IE for our public
> terminals (but I won't start a new flame war on this issue)
> and second, even I as a professional information scout have not been
> able to find on their web site(s) ANY useful phone number or email
> address for inquiries about their Internet Explorer Administration
> Kit (their web site mentions "IEAK at msn.com" -  which seems to be a
> direct link to their cute recycling bin icon).
>  I even called several MS numbers in Germany
> but to no avail. I think this billion dollar company did a great job
> in preventing people to actually reach a competent person directly
> via mail or phone.
> 
? Are you aware of any library-specific IEAK support
> or related projects the evil empire offers?
> 
Ulrich:
   I don't know why people like to bash Microsoft. I certainly don't 
consider them evil. Think of what the computing world would be like 
without any of their products. Why does success breed comtempt?
   You'll find a home page for the IE admin kit at 
https://ecpub.microsoft.com/ieak/ . I noticed an IEAK newsletter and 
support group you could join. The licensing agreement wasn't evil or 
onerous--fairly standard from what I could tell.
   I,too, am switching from Netscape to MSIE for both staff and 
public browsers, mainly because IE does a superior job rendering HTML 
3 standards than Netscape does. Stated another way, I have to fiddle 
less with my html pages in IE than I do for Netscape. I also believe that 
within a year or two after the release of their new version of 
Windows (son-of-Win95), Microsoft, and therefore Internet Explorer, 
will be the industry standard for the desktop metaphor. That's just 
my opinion. Even if that didn't happen, IE does a better job 
presenting html pages than Netscape. That's reason enough.

Good luck,


Jay Ward
Automated Systems Manager
Cook Memorial Public Library District
Libertyville, IL
http://www.cooklib.org