[WEB4LIB] RE:The beginning of the end for the Netscape Browser???

[Raymond Wood]

> >Well who knows about the .Net thing - I mean, P.T. Barnum said "there's a
> >sucker born every minute" and/or "you can fool most of the people most
> >of the time".  If .Net flies (and I have no real doubts that most people
> >will be dragged along, even if a few are kicking and screaming) then it
> >will be another testament to Barnum's cynical wisdom.  Even Linus
> >Torvalds (inventor of the Linux kernel), an infamously even-tempered
> >fellow, said recently that the whole idea of convincing people to rent
> >their software instead of owning it was just nutty.  If any marketing
> >department is up to the challenge, it is Microsoft's  :)

> But it was Sun (supported by Oracle) who first popularised the notion of the
> thin client with the fat server, the rage backend database and the network
> being critical.

Sure - nevertheless it is only through MS's that this model will have
any real chance of succeeding.

> This was first rubbished by Microsoft, but then they became aware of the
> advantages and they are now positioning .Net as their framework for Web
> services as opposed to Sun's ONE vision.

'Embrace and extend'...

> There are many advantages to Web services (reusable components which can be
> accessed using standard Web protocols.

The question here is 'What advantages?', and 'Advantagious to whom?'.

Or perhaps you want to argue that MS is moving forward with this plan
out of primarily altruistic motivations? <grin>

> Sadly, as so often happens, it's difficult to have a rational debate on the
> pros and cons of this developments :-(

Well speak for yourself eh?  ;>  I don't see any difficulty here...

Raymond