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Microsoft to Pay AOL $750M in Settlement

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the coming-to-terms dept.

aoteoroa writes "Microsoft will pay $750 million to AOL Time Warner to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed by AOL on behalf of its subsidiary Netscape last year, the companies said Thursday. At first blush the deal looks good, but I can't help but wonder how a deal that ties AOL to IE again will negatively impact my favorite web browser." Here's a news.com story that also covers it. Is the browser war over? If so, it sure was anticlimactic.

3 of 673 comments (clear)

  1. Not Quite my friend by pardasaniman · · Score: 5, Informative

    Microsoft did not play quite fairly. When one installed the latest internet explorer, they were also changing windows DLLs that are preloaded on boot. This gives Internet Explorer a significant speed and stability boost. Netscape, on the other hand does not have that liberty.

    I believe there was a quote from the antitrust trial in which a memo was brought forth by the VP saying that Windows should be altered "so that running any other browser should be a jolting experience for the user"

    Microsoft may have made a better product in the end. But it came with cheating and sabotage.

  2. I wouldn't go so far as to call it "innovative" by SweetAndSourJesus · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's got a lot of those small features that make Apple stuff so damned cool.

    Stop/Reload use the same button, depending on whether or not the page is loaded. Why didn't anyone else think of this?

    The bookmark manager is so sweet it's been known to make grown men cry. So cool that the Camino guys are working on copying it.

    Three meg or so download. Remember when Opera could claim this?

    SnapBack makes getting back to search results very easy.

    Spell-checking in textareas. No tpyos in this post!

    So, no, it's not going to revolutionize browsing or anything. Since browsing technology has likely reached it's apex, all that's left are the small things.

    --

    --
    the strongest word is still the word "free"
    1. Re:I wouldn't go so far as to call it "innovative" by leviramsey · · Score: 5, Informative
      Stop/Reload use the same button, depending on whether or not the page is loaded. Why didn't anyone else think of this?

      Opera's had that for at least a couple of years.

      Three meg or so download. Remember when Opera could claim this?

      My Opera RPM is 3.7 MB, including mail-client (which I'd give up mutt for if only it supported local mailspools).

      SnapBack makes getting back to search results very easy.

      I'm presuming you're referring to some type of fast-rewind feature. Opera's got that (not sure if the button's on the toolbar by default though).