Griping about Microsoft IE4 -Reply

[Dan Lester]

NO FLAMES follow, though some common sense
does.....and perhaps a touch of sarcasm.  o-)

cyclops

>>> CMUNSON <CMUNSON at aaas.org> 07/16/97 10:55am
>>>
     Anyone who follows the computer industry can see that
Microsoft is a  monopoly in that industry and that it wants to
monopolize the  entertainment and information industries that
are online.
---------------
I should know better than to respond to such nonsense, but
I'm gonna give it a brief shot since it is Monday morning and
I'm tired and testy.  o-)

Big deal.  Netscape, Apple, IBM, and a zillion other
companies want the same thing.  IBM and Apple each were
leaders for a while.  They aren't.  There are surely no
guarantees that MS will be there forever.  This is the way that
business WORKS, whether MS or Sears or Prudential
Insurance.  All want to be the biggest, best, richest, etc. 
Nothing new here.  And, yes, it isn't uniquely American.  o-)

================
 It has a  project called Sidewalk that is an attempt to
eliminate Yahoo. It gives its IE browser away FOR FREE. 
--------------
So does Netscape.  I'll bet 90 percent of those reading this
list did NOT pay for their Netscape.  And lots of publishers do
deals like this, too.   I call it the "Cocaine Theory of
Marketing", which despite the title doesn't mean it is bad. 
Ask WestLaw or others about their almost-free pricing to law
schools so that the young lawyers will be hooked when they
go out into the real world.  As to trying to eliminate Yahoo
with Sidewalk, you're making an apples and oranges
comparison.   
============
It is attempting to privatize image collections (Corbis and
Bettmann) and trying to buy librarians' silence with puny
donations (Bill's worth 36 BILLION).
---------------
Almost ALL significant image collections are NOT free,
especially to replicate images.  Bettman wasn't free before. 
So, who cares who is getting the bucks from it.?  
================
 Microsoft is trying to dominate the online travel industry with
Expedia. It's even trying to colonize, no, assimilate Star Trek
fan sites with Continuum.
-------------------
Might we getting a little over the edge here??   What about
their fried chicken restaurants trying to take over the Colonel,
and their new MicroTaco shops trying to run TacoBell out of
business?  And are you wearing your new Microsoft
underwear today?   I am.    o-)
=================
 It's managed to get webmasters to stupidly put Microsoft IE
button  ADVERTISEMENTS on their websites, WITHOUT
EVEN PAYING THEM. 
-----------------------
Well, so what?  No one is making anyone put IE buttons on
their web pages.  Nor is anyone making webmasters put NS
buttons on their web pages.  I'll leave the counting to you, but
I'll bet there are more NS buttons on pages than IE buttons. 
And what about all the other buttons for all sorts of other
software, from backoffice stuff to HTML Editors?  Are all
those folks inherently evil too?   (either the webmasters or the
companies who provide the software and buttons?)
===============
Its site builder program for webmasters is another attempt to
get the techies hooked on Microsoft products. This idea that
Microsoft has about including "channels" to corporate
websites in its new browser is  pretty scary too. This is an
attempt to take back the web by the advertisers and the big
corporations. 
-------------------
Well, I'm glad no OTHER companies try to get you hooked on
their products, whether beer, soda, food, clothes, cars, etc. 
Have you ever read ANY literature in the field of brand loyalty?
 Car companies are always particularly interested in such,
and so are computer companies.  Look at the figures in some
reviews where these are provided.
==============
They are frightened about how  the web lets the small gal put
up a website that looks as good as the megacorp.
------------------------
Not the world's best shot at political correctness, there.  But
you tried.  And I don't see that as Microsoft being frightened. 
The more the "small/large man/woman" can do, the more it
HELPS Microsoft, as that gives them a bigger market. 
They're after more and more of the consumer market for
electronic services, as shown by their purchase of a cable
company.  And, THAT is where the serious money is to
them.....not in the big companies.  Remember, IBM made
that mistake and it cost them dearly.
=================
     Is there no end to Microsoft's reach and ambitions?
-------------------
Who knows?  Who cares?  What about yours, mine, or those
of others on the list?  Are reach and ambitions bad all of a
sudden?  
================
That is just some of the evidence and it should concern us. It
doesn't have to be THIS WAY. IF MICROSOFT HAS
DESTROYED THE ALTERNATIVES HOW ARE WE
SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO GO CHOOSE THEM? 
------------------
I sure don't see what they've destroyed as alternatives.  If you
mean Apple, it isn't Microsoft...it is their own slow suicide
ever since they decided to keep everything proprietary.  IBM
played that one right, even though they've kept trying to invent
their own weird things that they couldn't sell, ever since.
==================    
Yeah, like Netscape has the same R&D budget as Microsoft.
-----------
So what?  I don't think Edison or Bell or Goddard or Hollerith
or myriad others had big R&D budgets, either.  In fact, the
best developments often come from everywhere EXCEPT the
big companies.  
=================
If you want to collude with the Microsoft Empire, so be it.
-------------
This is getting almost as good as some of the conspiracy
freaks in places like the Flight-800 list or the alt.conspiracy
groups.  o-)
================
Have you attempted to convey to Netscape what libraries
need? Has anyone? I would think they would be more
receptive than Microsoft.
-------------------
Of course libraries have done so.  I've done so.  And there is
one thing you're forgetting.....that NEITHER of them has
libraries as any significant part of their market....never have,
never will.  I learned that one from IBM in the late sixties, and
it still is true.  Libraries aren't much of a market to ANYONE
except relatively small specialty companies, like library
equipment sellers, bookstack builders, specialty book
wholesalers or dealers, etc, etc.  

This is the real world.   We do NOT live in an ivory tower any
more, if we ever did.  We need to grow up and learn to deal
with it.
 
cheers

dan