Limtex,
I will assume that you have limited knowledge of the Technology Sector. To say that the browser is not important is a completely naive statement. Fort he sake of MSFT's competitors, they would only wish that MSFT were as naive as you on the importance of the Browser, but unfortunately MSFT competitors, MSFT is not stupid.
The browsers may not mean squat for you the average job-blow home computer user, but to the industry players it is very strategic. The browsers are the main portals to the Internet. The better the control of this portal, the more influential you are in controling how the Internet services are run and how standards for use on the Internet are developed and matured. If MSFT was to have any major influence on the Internet, it needed (and still needs) to have a strong position of the browser market.
A perfect example of this is Java. If MSFT did not have any browser market presence, Java would not be encountering the rough road to maturity that MSFT has generated for it. Now that the court case has forced MSFT to behave regarding Java the road will be much smoother, but before that trial, MSFT had caused a lot of trouble for Java's development.
Not to mention the fact that you have no care for the fact that an innovative little startup company was being crushed by a monopolistic industry bully (MSFT) who decided that Netscape had a good thing here and they needed to steal that marketshare away. Maybe in the short term you dont really care that MSFT broke anti-trust laws to take that marketshare from Netscape, but you would have cared if you worked for Netscape and you will care if MSFT continues to stifle new and as-of-yet unheardof innovative companies that creates most of the technology that you currently use on your computer.
Let me ask you a question to see how well you know your facts, how much of the MSFT technology (i.e. software and even hardware) that you use today do you think MSFT invented or concieved of? I think you will be quite shocked if I tell you that its likely about less than 10%. If MSFT is continued to be allowed to crush these innovative startups, where do you think the next major Internet innovation will come from? Sure as heck not from MSFT.
After all, the MSFt slogan that was properly mutated to better fit the company was:
MSFT needs the freedom to Intimidate, uhmmm, not Imitate, no ahh, Innovate - yeah thats right!
Toy |
