Gates: Browser conceived before Netscape was born seattletimes.com
Well, of course it was Bill. NSCA Mosaic, the original code base for IE, and the original graphical browser. You just have to explain how it became a Microsoft "innovation".
This is the Seattle Times article referred to in the previous message / story. Again, it's not a new line, the revisionist history thing was first floated last Nov. I think. Interesting enough article anyway. Of local interest:
Gates has strongly denied his company threatened Netscape and says notes by Thomas Reardon, an early Microsoft Internet manager, taken at a June 21, 1995, meeting between executives from both companies will bear out Microsoft's claim. Reardon has turned over the notes to Microsoft attorneys for use in the company's defense against Justice Department allegations.
First I've seen our old friend's name turn up on this matter. May he, Bill, and Glaser can get together in DC on a recess day, take in the Smithsonian or something. On the ever slippery "when did Microsoft get on the internet bandwagon" date, we're going back to the future again, this time to 1991, when secret 2nd in command Allard joined the company.
Although the Shumway retreat marked the inception of Microsoft's browser development, Gates said the company supported Internet technologies compatible with the Web as early as 1991. J. Allard, a recruit fresh from Boston University, was assigned to develop a key Internet technology for a Microsoft product.
Shortly thereafter, efforts began to develop Winsock, a technology that made it easier to develop Windows applications for the Internet. Winsock was vital to the development of Windows browsers by a variety of early vendors.
"You can go back to 1991 and say we were doing really good stuff for the Internet," Gates said. "You can't criticize us on (Internet) transport (technology)."
No, no. You can't criticize Microsoft on anything, for that matter. Unless you're willing to short the stock, I've been told. Anyway, Bill's only got about another 10 years to go, and he'll have Microsoft being the prime mover in developing TCP/IP. Will the trial be delayed long enough for us to work back that far? We're doing pretty good so far, Dec. 7, 1995's "day that will live in infamy", "waking a sleeping giant" has now been rolled back through 94,93,92,91, all in the space of a few months.
Cheers, Dan. |
