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Technology Stocks : MSFT Internet Explorer vs. NSCP Navigator
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To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (20008)6/12/1998 7:34:00 PM
From: Bearded One  Read Replies (1) of 24154
 
In the Economist story, Gates details a Dec. 7, 1993, message from Microsoft Executive Vice President Steve Ballmer that says the company " 'could really help popularise' the forthcoming Windows 95 if the operating system could be positioned as 'the greatest front end to the Internet.' "

Gates also cites a subsequent December 1993 message from an unnamed Microsoft technologist arguing for Microsoft to provide Internet facilities as part of its operating systems.

What people may not realize is that the internet has always been a lot more than just browsers and the web. For all we know, Ballmer might be talking about FTP and Gopher (and Veronica and FSP) services. I certainly don't see the word 'HTML' anywhere in the quoted portions of the missive.

And of course, the whole thing is irrelevant. Whatever they said about the internet does not contradict what they said about killing off Netscape and Java, does not contradict the fact that they marketed and distributed IE 3.0 and 4.0 as a seperate product apart from Windows 95, and does not contradict the fact that they used exclusionary deals wish ISPs and OEMS for the express purpose of limiting use of Netscape. The 'integration' of the browser to the O/S is just one thread in a rope of monopolistic practices-- removing it still leaves a pretty strong rope.
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