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Andreessen on the Browser Wars

Posted by michael on from the if-you-can't-beat-em dept.

Pauly writes "In this interview, Marc Andreessen dismisses the likelihood of a renewed browser war based on the release of Mozilla 1.0. He cites Microsoft's current monopolistic market share, and dares anyone to try and fight it."

13 of 543 comments (clear)

  1. Interviewer is a dolt by mlinksva · · Score: 5, Informative

    Let's see, Opera is open source and Andreessen joined Netscape early. The first is totally false, the second is of secondary importance. Andreessen co-wrote Mosaic. Guess IDG reporters don't remember that. What other stupid errors can you spot?

    1. Re:Interviewer is a dolt by mlinksva · · Score: 3, Informative
      IDG: How about just the idea of having an open source browser, the Opera Web browser for instance.! Is that beneficial to users or developers?

      Andreessen: How much (browser) market share does Opera have?

      IDG: Let's pretend Opera has a 93 percent market share. Does it make a difference that its code is open source?

      Andreessen: (Pause). I don't think so. For mass market adoption (open source) is clearly not compelling yet or (Opera) would have more adoption than it does. Other things are more important. Bundling with the (operating system) is clearly more important for adoption. When you're competing against something that's both being (promoted) by a monopoly and is free, good luck competing, have fun.

      Looks pretty clear to me that the interviewer thinks Opera is open source. Or he can't use pronouns. Can't really tell if Andreesseen thinks so or his comments have been damaged by rewriting.

  2. Re:You never know... by generic-man · · Score: 1, Informative

    Actually, the first beta of AOL 8.0 for Windows still includes Internet Explorer. Compuserve 7.0 for Windows and AOL for Mac OS X have included Gecko-based browsers, but I would imagine that the vast majority of AOL users are still on either Mac OS 9 or Windows.

    AOL has alluded to a Gecko-based client for a long time. If they finally move their Windows userbase over, I think a lot of web sites will need to rethink their target audience.

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  3. Re:Doesn't this sound realistic? by Zeinfeld · · Score: 2, Informative
    I have Opera running on my Zaurus. Now granted that 32Mb is not very much memory these days the damn thing crashes after about three pages. Now back in 1992 we used to use X11 workstations with 32 Mb of memory and a browser would run just fine. Granted the Zaurus has a few problems wih being a first release but there is no way that Microsoft would have released such bloatware for a handheld device...

    Problem is that there is no way to turn off all the bloatware features that have been added to browsers. Like javashit and CSS (OK can't expect Hakon not to do CSS on his browser ...)

    As for netscape, only reason I ever use it is because MIT libraries don't support IE for the journals online my wife uses (she being a perpertual (sorry tenured) student there).

    --
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  4. Re:I DID read the article... by Verizon+Guy · · Score: 2, Informative

    Word. Although IE is my main browser, I do all my testing in Moz cause I know if it looks perfect in Moz it will look perfect in IE. IE is a little lenient, which is a catch-22... it encourages lazy coding. It may look like shit in other browsers.

    --

    Aw, fuck it. Let's go bowling. - The Big Lebowski

  5. Re:I DID read the article... by mark_lybarger · · Score: 2, Informative

    exactly, and moz is going to change that 95%. developers (and their managers) would rather code to an RFC than to some piece of software (browser). just like java developers would rather code to the java platform and not to some specific java compiler or OS. did java developers in the past develop OS specific code? of course, but the tout of the language and the platform is it's portability. developers can code to a standard, and the jvm vendors must implement that standard. the best implementors will get the most business. same goes for web browsers.

    on your frames example, it just shows how using a non-standard technology can bite you in the arse. the RFC's and standards in general are all about generating public debates on the usefullness of technologies and to allow other ideas to surface in the process. propriatary technologies are just that, some isolated idea from a cube farm that manages to work it's way into the next product. not really the best way to innovate.

  6. "visionary Marc Andreessen" by Pac · · Score: 3, Informative

    As far as I remember, Andreessen was a competent programmer who was able to make a big buck by transfering intelectual property from an open source/freeware inniciative (Mosaic) to a privately owned enterprise more or less exactly at the right moment. All "vision" he might have had was poured upon (into?) his head by "whatwashisname", Netscape founder and first CEO.

    1. Re:"visionary Marc Andreessen" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Jim Clarke.

    2. Re:"visionary Marc Andreessen" by msouth · · Score: 3, Informative

      ah, but Mosaic was NOT open sourc, although the NCSA version was free to download. If it had been, we would have a totally different world today. A company called Spyglass got the rights from NCSA to the Mosaic code. Spyglass licensed it to Microsoft for (monumentally bad decision) a percentage of the sale price. Had there been a minimum in that contract, IE couldn't have been distributed free, all the Spyglass shareholders would now be retired, and who knows what else--maybe it would have prevented the bundling with the OS and we wouldn't have gotten the antitrust decision.

      On the other hand, had Mosaic (probably created with mostly public money) been under an open source license, the hordes of open source hackers would have had the same starting point that MS had when they created explorer.

      Anyway, I think that's how it happened.

      --
      Liberty uber alles.
  7. ShareZilla by savaget · · Score: 3, Informative

    One way to gain market share would be for a P2P Mozilla project(Sharezilla) to be started. Good file sharing software catches on quickly.

  8. Re:Doesn't this sound realistic? by dbazile · · Score: 2, Informative

    The "patch" is XP-SP1 and it doesn't remove IE, WMP, JVM, or OEX. It simply hides the access to them.

    Oh, and don't even bother trying to delete the directories, as the System File "Protection" directory's been moved to another (undisclosed) location.

  9. IE troll hole by twitter · · Score: 4, Informative
    Verizon Guy says, IE rocks, Netscape sucks, then takes swing at Larry Ellison. Looks like flame bait to me, but that's nothing new from the Verizon Guy.

    here he distracts the reader's amusment from M$ including actual viruses on their CDs with a swipe at BIND.
    here he tells us Lindows is second rate.
    here is a real gem, where he calls free software advocates stupid, retarded and pubic hairless. Nice.
    here we have a pure flame that was moderated well.

    Well, there you have it, a typical M$ loudmouth. The man must mod himself.

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  10. Re:Doesn't this sound realistic? by Zeinfeld · · Score: 4, Informative
    I bet browsers did run really well on your 1992 workstations, since the first graphical browser [uiuc.edu] wasn't released until late 1993

    I wrote a browser in 1992.

    Marc's was not the first by a long shot, it was the first browser for motif that used the motif look and feel. Before Mosaic there were browsers but they mostly looked awful.

    The big innovation in Mosaic was not the images, it was the forms. Images were cute but at the time there wasn't that much bandwidth (The whole of CERN had a T1). It was adding the forms that opened up a whole new area of capability.

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