Re: Prefer Netscape (was: Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics)

I am tireded of the "browser wars" !  MS had a good product, strong
marketing, and Apple could have had it too in the beginning instead of IBM.
Would we be worse off? I guess not in Netscapes eyes.
I say we need to get rid of NS if they cannot become compliant.  Too many
hours, and not even enough time in my day to worry over the small amounts of
Netscape traffic. IF we stop babying Netscape, perhaps when it has no more
users, it will get the HINT!
----- Original Message -----
From: "KathyW" <kathyw(at)home.albury.net.au>
To: <hwg-techniques(at)mail.hwg.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2000 7:02 PM
Subject: Re: Prefer Netscape (was: Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics)


| ** Reply to message from Dawn <dawn(at)soholondon.com> on Thu, 02 Nov 2000
| 19:24:30 +0000
|
| This one has nearly had it's run, but for those new to the wars ...
|
| > Many people do not consider the fact that although Netscape had some
| > very talented programmers and engineers, that sort of management was
| > never going to make it when the market got competitive.  That is why
| > they lost the browser wars and that is why they now belong to AOL.
|
| Not entirely. As someone who tried to organise for an Australian ISP to
get a
| contract to sell Netscape when it was still commercial, I agree
wholeheartedly
| that their management and marketing sucked big time, and their arrogance
was,
| in hindsight, amusing.
|
| As a partner in an ISP who looked at a contract from M$ for distributing
their
| browser, and saw in WRITING the exclusionary clauses that would have
prevented
| us distributing NS even if subscribers wanted it, I have to say M$ have
been
| more than just "naughty". Opera aren't exaclty innocent in that respect
either
| ...
|
| Netscape's poor java support (which annoyed me enormously) I have also
come to
| find can also be blamed directly on M$ for applying pressure on other
industry
| bodies to stop helping NS improve it, to the point where NS could no
longer
| afford to keep a Java development team going at all (spelt out in part on
the
| Anti-Trust Findings of Fact).
|
| MS have, however, had a lot of help along the way:
| * from every slovenly, lazy individual, business and OEM that couldn't be
| bothered installing the NS browser if the OS came with IE;
| * from lazy or ignorant web "authors" (I use the term loosely) who
couldn't
| even get their code to validate if their lives depended on it ("but it
works OK
| in IE, besides what is 'validate' anyway??");
| * and from a largely ignorant and computer illiterate user base who, when
asked
| what their Operating System is (on support calls) regularly offer "Office
97"
| or "Office 2000" and the occasional "Windows 97" (windies jumped from 95
| straight to 98 for those that don't remember back that far ... ).
|
| > still build backwards-compatible sites until NN4x users drop below 2%.
|
| Unfortunatley (and despite M$ attempts to the contrary), that is going to
take
| a while :-(
| One of our support personnel spent 15 minutes on the phone last week
| UNsuccessfully trying to talk a windows user through shutting down their
| computer. Geeez .... felt like saying "put it back in the box, take it
back to
| the shop that sold it to you and go buy a Mac ..." There is a HUGE user
base
| "out there" that are simply incapable of installing even the most
| easy-to-install lead-you-by-the-nose piece of software.
|
| How long is the warranty period on computers these days? How soon can we
expect
| the old machines to fail and need replacing with something that has a
later
| browser(s)?? Good question.
|
| Will the consumer be given any choice in pre-installed browser software? I
| doubt it ... not if M$ and lazy OEM's have their way. I hear M$ bought
their
| way out of the 95 anti-trust case. I wonder how much they are offering to
whom
| now to get out of this one?
|
| Well, that's my rant for the month. Pity it doesn't make me feel any
better
| about browser incompatabilities ...
| KathyW.
|
| SuSE Linux 7.0 / IBM JRE1.1.8 / PolarBar Java Mailer 1.19RC11

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