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Technology Stocks : Netscape -- Giant Killer or Flash in the Pan? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: grasshopper who wrote (1565)	11/13/1997 4:52:00 PM
From: Lewis Gershtein	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4903

DEAD COMPANY CAN'T JUMP Here are some excerpts from a prominent California newspaper. They gave very good advise to Netscape, but I doubt Netscape can benefit from this advise--DEAD COMPANY CAN'T JUMP!. Netscape Communications Corp. just happens to control 60 percent of the global market for Internet browsers, probably the fastest-growing segment of the computer industry. Yet this fabulously successful company has convinced the U.S. government that it is a victim of unfair competition. And the Justice Department's antitrust division has come galloping to the rescue. Recently, Justice announced that it has asked a federal court to slap Microsoft with a contempt citation and a big fine because of the way it is competing against - break out the hankies - poor little Netscape. The Justice Department is arguing that Microsoft violated a 1995 agreement by bundling its Internet browser program, Explorer, together with the standard Windows 95 operating system. Justice says that's unfair to Netscape. Netscape doesn't sell an operating system, so it can't bundle its browser software in the same way. The technical question here is whether Microsoft is really bundling two separate programs - or whether the two have become one. The head of the antitrust division declares firmly that Windows and Explorer are "two separate products" and must remain so. Microsoft says the 'Net browser has gradually become part of its operating system, so it's only natural to put both tools in a single package. On this point, Microsoft clearly has the stronger argument. To prevail, the Justice Department has to take the insupportable position that all the elements of a software program are set in concrete with the first version, and the maker can't add any features without violating the law. In fact, incorporation of new features has been going on as long as there have been software programs. The current version of Windows, for example, has all sorts of useful tools - a clock, a CD player, a file-compression utility, a disk-defragging program - that used to be sold as separate programs. Netscape has done the same thing with each new version of its browser. Consumers aren't complaining; we get, for free, programs that we used to pay for. And any user who doesn't want the Microsoft browser can still use Netscape, which is available everywhere. Over the past three months, we have had the chance to use new PCs from Dell, IBM, Hitachi, Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba. On every one of them, both Explorer and Netscape came pre-installed, for free. It's hard to see how this gives Microsoft any advantage. So the government should not, and probably will not, win its headline-grabbing legal action against Microsoft. As for Netscape, it should quit whining and fire back at Microsoft by developing an operating system of its own - an "Anti-Windows," if you will - to bundle with its Web browser. Windows 95 may be the most widely used software program in the world, but it is probably the most widely disliked program as well. Millions of us would gladly buy "Anti-Windows" - and take Netscape Navigator along with it in the package.