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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: M31 who wrote (8186)	5/31/1998 2:05:00 AM
From: mozek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

M31, You don't sound very objective about the whole thing. Sounds more like some pretty strong personal feelings against Bill Gates. Do you know him, or is he just a scapegoat for your frustration? How's this for a review? I think IE sucks... I said "major" reviews :-) Most of the real reviews stated specifically what they liked/didn't like about each product. Actually, I think Nav is alright. I had Nav 4 installed on my system for a while to try and honestly see which I liked better, but had too many crashing problems with Nav's Java. Eventually, I went back to IE. I think IE's better, but there are some things I liked in Nav more than IE 3.0 (like smoother page display & better page cache). I definitely like IE 4.0 more than Nav in everything that comes to mind. Overall, I think it's an easier to use and more polished product. Have you read the lawsuit transcript? Yes, I've read the transcript in its entirety. It may surprise you, but these comments were selected out of thousands of statements and pieces of correspondence, taken out of context, twisted to inaccurately depict a competitive attitude as underhanded, and seem to be less alarming than many comments and strategic statements I've heard from Sun and Netscape. When Scott McNealy said in the first JavaOne keynote that Microsoft and Intel needed to be "chopped down" like trees, we got the message pretty quickly that our desire to work as partners was purely unilateral. This was just before they announced a number of Java initiatives with Netscape & others that we legally should have known about as licensees but didn't (check out Microsoft's Java license agreement on our web site). Funny that Scott McNealy is quite involved and vocal in both the Microsoft and Intel actions from the Justice dept (recently quoted in a zdnet article about the Intel suit). I believe that Orin Hatch said in the Bill Gates inquisition that he had spoken at length with McNealy often and just the night before. Of course McNealy's a simple working man with family roots in the all-American auto industry and a hockey playing son named "Maverick", so when he says softly in an NPR interview that "no one will get sued for using Java" we should all believe him. BTW, this was prior to Sun suing Microsoft over Java & prior to their notice to many tens of small companies to cease and desist their use of the Java name in products for Java. This is just the information that's publicly available. Just look at Netscape's original business plan and any news quoting Marc Andreesen from the second half of 1995 and you'll see plenty of strategies/statements much worse than any in the DOJ complaint. Of course Netscape was a defenseless little company with 90% browser market share and 1/5 the market cap of Microsoft at the time. You know, if rather than attacking Microsoft, you just wanted to see a better IE, you could let them know specifically what features/improvements you'd like to see. You'd be surprised at their receptiveness to customer feedback. Thanks, Mike

To: M31 who wrote (8186)	5/31/1998 2:28:00 PM
From: rudedog	Respond to of 74651

M- Had there been any companies as predatory as microsoft when Bill was starting out, he probably would have been assimilated or eliminated. I think that IBM in the late 70's and early 80's qualifies as at least as predatory as anything claimed for MSFT, and by golly so did the DOJ. As it turned out, IBM had every opportunity to 'assimilate or eliminate' MSFT but just didn't see them as a threat - how could a 100 person company whose annual revenues amounted to the business IBM did in just 4 hours possibly be worth consideration?

To: M31 who wrote (8186)	5/31/1998 10:05:00 PM
From: J Krnjeu	Respond to of 74651

Dear M31, <<Reviews? How's this for a review? I think IE sucks and whenever I hear anyone complain about problems they're having with it, I suggest trying Netscape. When they do, they almost always stay with Netscape.>> I will say that I use both Netscape and Internet Explorer. Netscape at work and IE at home. I perfer IE over Netscape and I have notice a trend. Ever though we are suppose to Netscape at work more employees are moving to IE. The employees that have dropped Netscape are not your techies but are people who just use their PC in the performance of their job. I do know that the personnel who are in the computer department have dropped Netscape and are using Internet Explorer only. They say that IE 4.0 just blows Netscape away. To Mike at Microsoft, tell your fellow workers to keep up the good work, it is appreciated. Thank you, JK