With the launch of the IE7 beta, there has been some fascinating discussion about Microsoft's track record in the Web browser market. John Dvorak, who's no stranger to controversial, against-the-grain ideas, describes IE as "The Greatest Microsoft Blunder" – suggesting it has taken the company's focus away from more important strategic priorities such as getting a new version of Windows – Vista – out the door. So, what if Microsoft never got into the browser market? What would have happened if Bill Gates had not decided to turn the Titanic onto the super-highway or, at least, decided to focus on other online opportunities other than the browser? I suspect Netscape would probably be around and thriving, and the Navigator browser would be industry standard. Maybe it would have been better for the Web's evolution because Microsoft wouldn't have had such a key role in how people accessed online services and content. You have to remember that until IE7 came along, the core of IE was still based on technology licensed from Spyglass Inc., which Microsoft jumped on after failing to secure a licensing deal with Netscape. While Microsoft continued to reply on Spyglass, rest of the browser market continued to move ahead with Opera, Firefox, et al pushing the envelope. Meanwhile, Netscape got sucked up by AOL, which proceeded to emasculate what had been one of the Web's most exciting companies. If Microsoft had not launched IE and/or not proceeded to attack Netscape, maybe the browser market would be a different place today. Maybe Marc Andreessen would still be working there and Netscape wold have evolved into the flagship Web 2.0 company. Then again, Netscape's demise has allowed Firefox to successfully emerge so perhaps that's the silver lining.
For some other thoughts on IE7, check out Nicholas Carr, Inside Microsoft, Nick Bradbury and Makeyougohmmm.
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6 Comments
Pointless. The debate at MS was not whether to turn the Titanic onto the superhighway. The debate was when, and whether to do so through a browser or through an OS. The fragmented approach taken simply mirrors the software industry as a whole, which has a tedious tendency to believe its own hype.
Netscape was heading down a bad road and would have eventually died. Did we all forget communicator? That very product was where IE outdid Netscape and took the lead. Bundling it with the OS was a huge part of it, but if Netscape hadn't put out a horrible product, IE would have had a lot more trouble taking off.
I think a better question could be, “What if Microsoft DID secure the deal with Netscape?”
Then perhaps both companies would be in a better position, IMO.
On another note, Firefox is not much of a shining achievement. It mostly protects us from ourselves. It's like a stripped barebones browser, which is what helps keep the security up. Notice you CANNOT use ActiveX without a plugin, etc.
Today Alec Saunders has posted his comments on Dvorak's article, pointing out that the browser was a feature but not a stand alone product.
Having been involved with some early browser development efforts, I have posted a prologue giving some history leading up to why Spyglass was launched. I have then provided my brief observation on where browsers would be today without IE.
[Now if the good folks at Google could just be convinced that Blogger needs to include TrackBack as a feature I would not have to write this comment.]
If IE had never existed, we would still be stuck with the buggiest base that was NS 4.7 – or worse the joke of the century: Netscape 6.0.
People should stop whinging about Internet Explorer. Opera, Firefox and others are still way far behind and although IE has its flaws, the other browsers just plain suck.
If IE had never come out, DHTML would have not evolved as far. Nor would have script languages and other useful things.
Microsoft have simply been giving other browser makers a kick in the butt to perform better and evolve faster.
As I haven't tried IE7 yet, I can't say a thing about it but the fact that I don't trust new MS applications until they are 2 years old in the production market.
See you in two years.