>>>And I guess I also disagree with the amount of credit you give Andreessen--my understanding is that others at Netscape (Clark, Barksdale, Eric Hahn (!), Mike Homer, etc.) are the ones who did all those great things.<<<
Maybe you are right about that. I was referencing his work on the Mosaic project as a student (credit for which he doesn't share enough), but particularly capitalizing on that experience to contact the right people with the idea of taking Mosaic commercial.
Now if you were to tell me that Barksdale et al thought of that and just recruited the student who seemed to be most central to the project I would rethink that.
No matter how you look at it though, Andresen and the rest of the folks at Netscape had to actually build the product, help invent the business (along with thousands of other developers and small companies), show that the whole thing was important, would pencil out, was a big part of the future, before Microsoft budged. So on the innovation *comparison* level vis-a-vis MSFT and the Internet, Netscape is the clearly more innovative company. As are the rest of the cast of thousands who worked on the Internet before MSFT got the picture. After which MSFT came in dead last.
Netscape product development lately has shown some cracks, but I think that is due to rapid expansion and the experience level *as a software development organization*. Certainly they have released some stuff I would never have let out of QA (as has Microsoft.) This is partly due to competitive pressure to get things out fast at both companies.
I have no clue how much influence Andresen has now on the style of product development. Personally, I would take my foot off the gas for a month a put out a debugged and faster release. Then just stay at that level for a few months to allow the company to regain it's quality perception.
Chaz |
