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AOL Patent Deal Means Microsoft Now Holds Vestiges of Netscape
inode_buddha writes "It's part of the $1 billion AOL patent deal, and it's something that would have made many minds explode back in the 1990s. It still makes my mind explode today. Marc Andreesen points out that MS now has a significant chunk of the old Netscape. What are the ramifications for Mozilla?"
Nothing.
With the exception of Opera they are not actually alternate browsers. They are safari with some different buttons at the bottom. Apple does not allow other browsers on the app store.
Opera gets away with it because of that minifying thing they do where they MITM each page.
NetSoft InternetEscaper? Netcraft MicroScapeExplorer? MicroCape NetExCavator? A strange marriage, this on... I'll just stick to using FireFox, thank you...
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
All alternate browsers must use the Safari rendering engine - in short you can get a fancy front end, but not a new backend (like say Firefox's backend, or Opera, etc) Note that Opera's Mini browser gets a pass since most work doesn't occur on the device, but Opera's backend servers. You can't get the "real" Opera browser on the phone.
Unless somethings changed in the last year, I can't port Opera or Firefox or Chrome over, etc
if you can't beat them, buy them
Beat them and buy them.
Dark Reflection
MS isn't terribly worried about the browser wars any more. They're far more afraid of Apple and Google; witness the abortion that is Metro on W8 and their mad rush to 'converge' the desktop with the tablet. Idiocy? Perhaps. It's certainly a slap in the face to every desktop user.
Don't remember telling you if you should care or not. Question was asked and I provided the answer. If that offended your fanboyism I apologize.
But while on the topic - We all know how well only having one Web browser (IE6) worked out for everyone. And if you're providing anecdotes - Safari runs like crap on Windows.
I know most people only think of Netscape with browsers, but I have most of the original Source from the various Netscape projects somewhere.
Netscape back then had an impressive LDAP server, Identity Management Server, Application server, Key servers, Proxy servers, as well as the framework for the web browser. Netscape was huge, and in to lots of technical areas that most people think of as standard services. Netscape was literally the gateway for SunOne Directory server for example.
The age of the patents has to put them close to expiration. This is the first "WTF" when talking about paying such a high price for AOL patents. The next WTF is that most of the Netscape patents were open sourced long long ago. Meaning that the patents have no value (Assuming that UC vs. AT&T would be considered valid case law example, which it has been repeatedly.). I fail to find value in what they bought, at least that goes beyond a year or two.
I'm not a fortune teller, but here is what I see. Microsoft is going to start trying to sue everyone. They see the writing on the wall, hell even our Windows guys at work say "Microsoft will be out of business in 4-5 years" and are trying to learn Linux. Zune was way to late, WinPhone is something nobody wants, XBox is still a huge money sink, and people have no desire to keep buying the same OS and Office products for way more money than they are worth from them.
I see this is a drowning company flailing in the water. I hope they prove me wrong, but then again we in the business know how they have been since day 1.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
This billion dollar expenditure to buy something as silly as software patents is the #1 reason why they won't go away. Big business has too much invested in software patents to let some pesky government go about changing the rules. Meanwhile, small business suffers for it.
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
Netscape actually did beat Microsoft in the antitrust case. (Unfortunately it bankrupted them, and forced Netscape to sell-off to AOL.)
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"