I don't mean to slight Berners-Lee, who I believe is responsible for the underlying protocols and formats of the Web, html, http, etc. Those protocols are as central to "the Web" as TCP/IP is to "the internet". My understanding is that the original CERN tools for browsing were text based and not that popular.
All this stuff about Bill integrating "internet technology" in '94, or '93, or '92, or '91 is silly, as you say. The old Bill quote on TCP/IP was that it was "Unix proprietary". When did Microsoft actually ship a TCP/IP Winsock for Windows 3? The Microsoft plan was obviously MSN, from when the old-style centralized AOL looked like the next big thing. Microsoft must be free to imitate, you know. There was an interesting article in the WSJ, mid-late June, about Microsoft attempting to buy out AOL in 92-93 or so. The usual Microsoft style at work, with Bill's charming "we'll take you over or crush you" negotiating. Offered price was $50million, and the vulture capitalists were pushing to cash in. The story said it was touch and go in the board of directors, the offer was turned down by one vote.
That was all long before Bill had to "drive a stake through the heart of MSN" by paying AOL to use IE, of course. Another one of those postmodern economic things, the free market at work and all that. Poor Netscape turned out to look like a bigger threat to Windows World than AOL. I'm sure that Encarta will eventually give a correct history of all this, showing Microsoft's central role in the creation of the interNet we all know and love. Watch out for that DNA retrovirus.
Cheers, Dan. |
