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Microsoft Tried To Buy Netscape: Suppose They Had?

Posted by Soulskill on from the alternate-e-history dept.

Glyn Moody writes "In an interview, Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript and currently CIO at Mozilla, reveals that Microsoft tried to buy Netscape at the end of 1994. They were turned down because the offer was too low, but imagine if Netscape had accepted: no browser wars, no open Web standards, no Mozilla, no Firefox. How might the Web — and the world — have looked today if that had happened?"

2 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. The web would by Crudely_Indecent · · Score: 4, Informative

    <marquee behavior=scroll width=100%><blink>SUCK</blink></marquee>

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    "Lame" - Galaxar
  2. Re:Fallacy by Scoth · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is the point so many fans of modern Firefox and other open source browsers forget. Netscape wasn't about open web standards and cross-browser compatibility until relatively recently - probably after the fall of Netscape itself and beginning of Mozilla/Gecko. Way back in the mists of time, Netscape 2.0 was roundly criticized for introducing a bunch of proprietary tags (many of which were later adopted but at the time weren't) and Microsoft Internet Explorer 1.0 was praised for adhering to standards. I can't find it now but recently I stumbled on an ancient page that urged a boycott of Netscape 2.0 and explained in great detail what proprietary tags it had and which were safe to use.