I know it was a long piece, Don, but you did snip out the important context, that being Netscape's "zero enforcement" shareware policy. Heck, I gave my name and address when I downloaded it; all Netscape had to do was send me the bill. (Small b.) They never did, in any sense of it. So whose fault is it they never got my money? Is a six billion dollar corporation supposed to be run on donations? How naive is that?
Keith, in case you haven't been following things, Netscape originally did just fine making money on browsers, however they went about it. It wasn't their "shareware" model that killed their browser revenue stream. Seems to have had something to do with Paul Maritz and Co., that "air supply" thing, by most estimations. Or maybe you have a better "common sense" explanation.
Speaking of context, this particular tortured chain started off with poor naive newcomer Ed Yander deriding "free software", when I piped in about Microsoft's postmodern economics on the subject, the reply was:
LOL. Microsoft is charging for its browser because Windows aint free. (msg 10276)
This at least used to be the company line on IE, that it was officially part of Windows development, and that's how you paid for it. At least when it wasn't "free forever". Nobody seems to want to explain how that particular company line applied to Mac and Unix IE. Nobody seems to want to take on your Bill's old, peculiar definition of communism either, as in:
At one point, Slivka proposed that Microsoft give away some software on the Net, as Netscape was doing. Gates, he recalls, ''called me a communist.'' (http://www.businessweek.com/1996/29/b34842.htm, good story there)
By the way, that particular remark was supposedly made on May 27, 1995. Over a year after Bill officially decided to "integrate the browser with Windows", on April 8, 1994. Maybe those past statements are all inoperative now, I lose track.
As to Newt's true views on campaign finance reform, I have immense respect for your "common sense" interpretation there too, of course. Campaign finance is a well known cesspool, has been for years. Funny how Newt seems to see an enforcement problem only on one side of the aisle, he's had a bit of controversy on his own fund raising techniques too, you know. I'm sorry I can't quite appreciate your "common sense" perspective on the matter.
Cheers, Dan. |
