I for one would happily PAY MONEY for a Quality >= GOOD browser. I have tried the iCab and so far as features and potential are concerned, I like it a -lot- better than the Nav4.06 I am using. Communicator has way too much stuff loaded up at the same time that I don't need, which is just a good/great browser. No built-in email, no built-in HTML Composer, no built-in news reader, and so on. I do like Netscape's newsreader, but I don't want to have the sucker loaded up in RAM just 'cause I have the browser up. IE 4 for Mac admittedly has a lot of features and capabilities that I really like, it's just that the damn thing has a tendency to break very ungracefully, not much but enough to be a pain, and it -still- has problems with sometimes refusing to load all the graphics, no matter what I do, not to mention how it funkily renders some pages' tables, eg. news.com. I got hacked off finally and went back to Nav4, which seems kind of anemic compared to the bells and whistles of IE4, and the 'feature rich' capabilities of iCab. I REALLY want Netscape/AOL(sigh) to SUCCEED!! But geez Louise, it has been over a year(?) since a major release?? And it looks like Nav5 won't be here until after y2k-day? Damn, man. Bottom Line: I think there is at least SOME kind of market for selling browsers, but they have to be good enough to justify it. I don't care if IE Vx.y is "FREE" forever, they throw all these features in there, but still don't get the BASIC stuff right! Not to mention feeling like a pawn in Gates' Internet Domination Campaign.
This is definitely FAKE "support" for Linux. It is no coincidence that the OEM that is coziest with Big Daddy Bill, whose CEO is the biggest OEM-SuckUp-To-Gates is also the one that is "offering" Linux preinstalled. Michael Dell held Billie's hand during the Hatch Hearings, recall? You can bet they were probably ASKED to do this on a limited basis for 1) MS knows Dell will drop it whenever MS says, and 2) so MS can say, "See??? There really -IS- competition! See??? We really -DON'T- have a monopoly!". I guarandamntee you that when the trial is over, and MS isn't stopped, they will "cuttoff their air supply" on Linux preloads by major OEMs just like they do with everything and everyone else.
And of course if they price them such that they are more expensive, or less desirable in other ways, then they can say, "Well, we offered them, but there was not enough interest." What creeps.
If I may quote the author, "Certainly, Microsoft holds scores of patents and copyrights but we'd like to know which products or basic technologies we use can be credited to the big brains in Redmond. This is a prime opportunity for Microsoft defenders to provide some evidence for the company's original contributions to the industry, because frankly, we're at a loss to think of a single one."
Currently the only nominations that have cleared the debunking process are :
Microsoft BOB
The Talking Paper Clip
Rejected nominations are:
The Tabbed Window View
ClearType
VFAT Filing System
Hypertext Help
Word for DOS
CD-ROM Autorun
Auto/hiding taskbar
Excel/Multiplan
QBASIC engine
For more details on why a nomination was rejected, and/or if you can suggest any nominations or rebuttals for TMHOI, please submit them to Hall of Innovation.
Quote Du Jour "We have increased our prices over the last 10 years [while] other component prices have come down and continue to come down." JOACHIM KEMPIN, Microsoft Senior Vice President
Get real. Microsoft is on the backs of all of us. There is a MAJOR difference between gool old fashioned hardball business and using an obvious monoply in the desktop OS market to leverage yourself into, and others out of, existing and nascient markets, solely for the reason of protecting your monopoly. If you don't see this then there is probably no hope for you.
No one can fault MS for playing hardball, but those jacks cross the line. In the words of the Klingon, "They have NO honor!".
Their notion of competing is killing the infant new competitors before they can grow up to actually compete, or using their monopoly power to prevent other companies large and small from even TRYING to compete. This is not competition, this is cowardice.
MS is NOT about capitalism or competition, it is about poor quality, bloatware, hypermarketing, Spinnovation, vapourware, and doing everything possible to NOT to have to compete. They FEAR competition. They FEAR it.
If they focussed on true innovation, regardless of the money they pour into 'research', (meaningless if nothing comes out of it except MS-Bob, and talking paper clips), and software quality, instead of making sure so competing products have a chance to compete, they, and all of us, would not be in the mess they are in now.
Slashdot Mirror
I for one would happily PAY MONEY for a Quality >= GOOD browser. I have tried the iCab and so far as features and potential are concerned, I like it a -lot- better than the Nav4.06 I am using. Communicator has way too much stuff loaded up at the same time that I don't need, which is just a good/great browser. No built-in email, no built-in HTML Composer, no built-in news reader, and so on. I do like Netscape's newsreader, but I don't want to have the sucker loaded up in RAM just 'cause I have the browser up. IE 4 for Mac admittedly has a lot of features and capabilities that I really like, it's just that the damn thing has a tendency to break very ungracefully, not much but enough to be a pain, and it -still- has problems with sometimes refusing to load all the graphics, no matter what I do, not to mention how it funkily renders some pages' tables, eg. news.com. I got hacked off finally and went back to Nav4, which seems kind of anemic compared to the bells and whistles of IE4, and the 'feature rich' capabilities of iCab. I REALLY want Netscape/AOL(sigh) to SUCCEED!! But geez Louise, it has been over a year(?) since a major release?? And it looks like Nav5 won't be here until after y2k-day? Damn, man. Bottom Line: I think there is at least SOME kind of market for selling browsers, but they have to be good enough to justify it. I don't care if IE Vx.y is "FREE" forever, they throw all these features in there, but still don't get the BASIC stuff right! Not to mention feeling like a pawn in Gates' Internet Domination Campaign.
"I saw Satan laughing with delight
the day the music died."
-Don McLean
Bill Gates and His Minions must be loving all this. ("We will bury them with their own confusion.")
Meet the new boss.
Same as the old boss.
We won't be fooled again.
This is definitely FAKE "support" for Linux. It is no coincidence that the OEM that is coziest with Big Daddy Bill, whose CEO is the biggest OEM-SuckUp-To-Gates is also the one that is "offering" Linux preinstalled. Michael Dell held Billie's hand during the Hatch Hearings, recall? You can bet they were probably ASKED to do this on a limited basis for 1) MS knows Dell will drop it whenever MS says, and 2) so MS can say, "See??? There really -IS- competition! See??? We really -DON'T- have a monopoly!". I guarandamntee you that when the trial is over, and MS isn't stopped, they will "cuttoff their air supply" on Linux preloads by major OEMs just like they do with everything and everyone else.
And of course if they price them such that they are more expensive, or less desirable in other ways, then they can say, "Well, we offered them, but there was not enough interest." What creeps.
This is not a Good Thing, it is a Scary Thing.
"Three men entah, one man leaves!"
"Three men entah, one man leaves!"
"Three men entah, one man leaves!"
Where is MadMAx?
If I may quote the author, "Certainly, Microsoft holds scores of patents and copyrights but we'd like to know which products or basic technologies we use can be credited to the big brains in Redmond. This is a prime opportunity for Microsoft defenders to provide some evidence for the company's original contributions to the industry, because frankly, we're at a loss to think of a single one."
Currently the only nominations that have cleared the debunking process are :
- Microsoft BOB
- The Talking Paper Clip
Rejected nominations are:For more details on why a nomination was rejected, and/or if you can suggest any nominations or rebuttals for TMHOI, please submit them to Hall of Innovation.
Quote Du Jour
"We have increased our prices over the last 10 years [while] other component prices have come down and continue to come down."
JOACHIM KEMPIN, Microsoft Senior Vice President
Screwed!!
/. condoms???
;-)
How about
Guaranteed not to crash.
"Get off Microsoft's back" ??????
Get real. Microsoft is on the backs of all of us. There is a MAJOR difference between gool old fashioned hardball business and using an obvious monoply in the desktop OS market to leverage yourself into, and others out of, existing and nascient markets, solely for the reason of protecting your monopoly. If you don't see this then there is probably no hope for you.
No one can fault MS for playing hardball, but those jacks cross the line. In the words of the Klingon, "They have NO honor!".
Their notion of competing is killing the infant new competitors before they can grow up to actually compete, or using their monopoly power to prevent other companies large and small from even TRYING to compete. This is not competition, this is cowardice.
MS is NOT about capitalism or competition, it is about poor quality, bloatware, hypermarketing, Spinnovation, vapourware, and doing everything possible to NOT to have to compete. They FEAR competition. They FEAR it.
If they focussed on true innovation, regardless of the money they pour into 'research', (meaningless if nothing comes out of it except MS-Bob, and talking paper clips), and software quality, instead of making sure so competing products have a chance to compete, they, and all of us, would not be in the mess they are in now.
Go take a history lesson, and read the facts.
MSH