MSFT Internet Explorer vs. NSCP Navigator Message Board

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Technology Stocks : MSFT Internet Explorer vs. NSCP Navigator

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To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (21454)	11/14/1998 8:28:00 AM
From: rudedog	Read Replies (2) of 24154

Dan - I have tracked both of these stories down to reputable people within both the palm team and symbol. The reality is about 180 degrees away from what these posts would suggest, and indicate to me that MSFT is in fact acting differently. According to a high-ranked source within 3com, the palm deal was actually MSFT offering development resources and a pretty sweet deal to get palm to port their interface to Windows CE and use CE as the underlying OS, not any attempt to buy palm or palm technology. The 3com people determined that CE was too big to do what they wanted, so they didn't take the bait. But there were some interesting advantages and they plan to keep the dialog open. Hardly the evil empire, just Bill the salesman doing his thing. The Symbol story was similar. MSFT had developed a number of 'helper' applications for realtime medical handhelds. Symbol wanted to try to port the source to use on their DOS-based machines. MSFT was trying to induce them to shift to CE instead by offering a long-term licensing deal at an initial price which was about what they are paying now for DOS, but gradually building over time to standard OEM CE pricing. I believe that this negotiation is ongoing with no conclusion at the moment. My source was a product manager who has been involved in the discussions. So as often happens, people with only a little knowledge are taking their few facts and constructing a picture which is not closely tied to what is really going on. I have a lot of interface with people who are affected by MSFT in one way or another and across the board the word I get is that attitudes have changed significantly in the last year. This would only be sensible given the current climate of opinion. No one with any sense would accuse MSFT of being either stupid or out of touch, and a change in MSFT attitude, or at least the perception of that attitude, is more or less required at this point. Has the leopard changed it's spots? Probably not, but the effect may still be the same as far as the development community is concerned. As I said before, IMO MSFT 'was in need of some restraint' (to quote Mick Jagger) but the current engagement with the DOJ (and to a lesser extent with Sun over Java) seems to be providing that effect. None of this is black and white and I have just as many reasons to doubt the motives and tactics of Sun, Oracle and Netscape as I do MSFT. There are no 'good guys' in that crew. It is important for anyone who wants to understand either MSFT or the industry to get a clear view of what's really going on. I don't think it helps any of us in that goal when people present as fact unsubstantiated rumors which just don't square with the facts.

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