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

To: Kevin Podsiadlik who wrote (10355)	8/27/1998 4:54:00 PM
From: nommedeguerre	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Kevin, How was not paying for the trial version of Netscape any different than pirating? By the same logic, the Chinese are doing nothing wrong by making copies of Windows and just "deciding not pay" because they didn't read the license agreement. Joe consumer isn't ignorant of the shareware policy, he just understands that it is not easily enforced; it does not take much intelligence to guess that "free" cable boxes are stealing cable either. Cheers, Norm

To: Kevin Podsiadlik who wrote (10355)	8/27/1998 5:01:00 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Sure Keith, or should I call you Kon, or Koug? A nice little story and all, but the hobgoblin in my small mind is giving me trouble again. There are a variety of channels for distributing software. Browsers get distributed through OEMs, through ISPs, through retail channels, and yes, through direct downloads. A really big channel was direct sales to large business accounts. The OEMs were the subject of the famous sacred icon war, of course. Poor Compaq took the big hit there, not only did they have to ditch Netscape distribution, once Bill's minions got through with them they were contractually banned from letting anybody use Netscape on Compaq premises, much less bundling Nav with new computers. Of course, the local Objectivists will explain that coercion is an inappropriate term for what happened there. That term only applies to Bosnian Serbs and the government, as best I recall. You can also look up Michael Dell's Senate testimony for a story about as convincing as yours about how nobody really wants Netscape software, and the fact you can't get it from Dell has nothing to do with any restrictions from Microsoft. All his salespeople were hopelessly confused on that one. ISPs, well, take AOL (please, as Henny Youngman would have said). Bill had to "drive a stake through the heart of MSN" on that one, (his words, again), but he bit the bullet and essentially paid AOL to take his excellent "free" software. Oh, there were a few ancillary costs there, AOL had to agree to certain restrictions on what they could say about the remote possibility of anybody using other software on their service, but by most measures AOL got an offer they couldn't refuse there. Again, much better than free, as I recall. Retail sales, I don't know how big a piece they ever were of revenue. Of course, Microsoft was selling Windows 95 hand over foot during this time at retail, the grotty old original August 95 versions the OEMs wouldn't touch. It was what the customers wanted, though. That OSR2 business was way over their heads. And "integrated" IE came on a separate CD in the box of air. Big direct business accounts, not many details to report there, but everybody has to deal with Microsoft, and Netscape was expendable. My understanding is that's where most of Netscape's browser revenues came from, and when that dried up is when their income went negative. Or maybe Netscape was just out-commied by the clever postmodern communist Bill Gates. Who can say? Your little chicken-and-egg story just seems a bit incomplete. I'm not even sure it's "innovative", I think I've heard it before. It might find a place in Bill's next revisionist history, though, maybe you could mail it to him. Cheers, Dan.