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These precocious shvoogies suscitate tears in my eyes.

Looking at another site, I find roughly similar numbers -- an 80/10/5 split on IE/Netscape/AOL(that is, IE again) usage, and a 95/4/1 split on Win/Mac/Other usage. I know there are lies, damn lies, and statistics, but I think these numbers are pretty valid -- look anywhere and you'll find roughly similar figures.

I hate to break it to you, but the list of platforms you describe is basically irrelevant. So Netscape has cornered the dark back alley of the internet. Big deal, they can have it. The browser war, as you seem not to understand, was (past tense) a fight over which software would become the de facto standard access point to the web for the average user, and the result of that war has been settled & done with.

Having better cross-platform support is a trump card if & only if the other platforms are statistically significant, but they aren't -- just ask anyone that was hoping to see something come of the BeOS. Netscape is finished, IE is in control of the web now. There are fringe browsers out there that might help keep IE honest (Opera, Lynx, W3M, Omniweb, Mozilla, and Netscape), but the're nothing more than fringe players, and for most purposes insignificant.

Netscape was alright back in the day, but let's not treat this dead horse too badly, ok?

Looking at another site, I find roughly similar numbers -- an 80/10/5 split on IE/Netscape/AOL(that is, IE again) usage, and a 95/4/1 split on Win/Mac/Other usage. I know there are lies, damn lies, and statistics, but I think these numbers are pretty valid -- look anywhere and you'll find roughly similar figures.

I hate to break it to you, but the list of platforms you describe is basically irrelevant. So Netscape has cornered the dark back alley of the internet. Big deal, they can have it. The browser war, as you seem not to understand, was (past tense) a fight over which software would become the de facto standard access point to the web for the average user, and the result of that war has been settled & done with.

Having better cross-platform support is a trump card if & only if the other platforms are statistically significant, but they aren't -- just ask anyone that was hoping to see something come of the BeOS. Netscape is finished, IE is in control of the web now. There are fringe browsers out there that might help keep IE honest (Opera, Lynx, W3M, Omniweb, Mozilla, and Netscape), but the're nothing more than fringe players, and for most purposes insignificant.

Netscape was alright back in the day, but let's not treat this dead horse too badly, ok?

Looking at another site, I find roughly similar numbers -- an 80/10/5 split on IE/Netscape/AOL(that is, IE again) usage, and a 95/4/1 split on Win/Mac/Other usage. I know there are lies, damn lies, and statistics, but I think these numbers are pretty valid -- look anywhere and you'll find roughly similar figures.

I hate to break it to you, but the list of platforms you describe is basically irrelevant. So Netscape has cornered the dark back alley of the internet. Big deal, they can have it. The browser war, as you seem not to understand, was (past tense) a fight over which software would become the de facto standard access point to the web for the average user, and the result of that war has been settled & done with.

Having better cross-platform support is a trump card if & only if the other platforms are statistically significant, but they aren't -- just ask anyone that was hoping to see something come of the BeOS. Netscape is finished, IE is in control of the web now. There are fringe browsers out there that might help keep IE honest (Opera, Lynx, W3M, Omniweb, Mozilla, and Netscape), but the're nothing more than fringe players, and for most purposes insignificant.

Netscape was alright back in the day, but let's not treat this dead horse too badly, ok?

Actually the AOL client browser has less than 6 percent of the browser marketshare. A lot of AOL users don't use the client to browse the web, they use IE or Netscape. The point you bring up about MS-only extensions is a good one, but I think you have it a bit skewed. The most important issue about it is that AOL is scared to death that if they start using a Mozilla-based client instead, their customers are going to go nuts that they can't view some of their favorite web sites anymore, and that this will be a really bad time for pissed-off customers coming on the heels of their pricing increase combined with the new MSN program targetting pissed off AOL users by giving them free months and a price cut.

Cheers,

Not sure how that possibly got a +5, Insightful, but here goes.

MSN which isn't very popular anyway

Hmm, unless Juno has more subscribers (I don't have their numbers), MSN has the second largest base of U.S. subscribers. Guess it's not all that unpopular after all.

Given that it's Time Warner-AOL who have stopped the talks, not Microsoft

None of the linked articles say this. Where are you getting this from?

with ICQ/AIM they already own instant messaging

I wouldn't shed too many tears for Microsoft here. MSNM has now had more users than AIM for a couple of months now. AOL wouldn't be doing so much whining about instant messaging lately if they really owned the market.

have a HUGE base of AOL users whose switch from IE to Netscape would be a major defeat for Microsoft

Huge? The AOL browser client has less than 6 percent of the browser marketshare.

Sorry if it hurts the Mozilla fans' sense of self-esteem, but the browser that the AOL client uses is a very minor issue in this deal. AOL in fact worried about alienating their customers by downgrading them to Mozilla, and unfortunately for them, Microsoft knows this, which means that there is no browser bargaining chip. The disagreements have more to do with multimedia and the DoJ than any non-existant browser war.

Cheers,

According to Websnapshot (http://websnapshot.mycomputer.com):

Microsoft: 79.7%
Netscape: 15.2%
AOL (IE): 5.1%
Other: 1.2%

These numbers are from non-pornographic sites, so they are more likely to include a higher percentage of people using their work PCs.