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Technology Stocks : MSFT Internet Explorer vs. NSCP Navigator -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Harvey Allen who wrote (20995)	9/16/1998 3:00:00 PM
From: Keith Hankin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

Office 97's browser discrimination By Erich Luening Staff, CNET News.com September 16, 1998, 11:05 a.m. PT Microsoft Office 97 users who attempt to download the latest service release using Netscape Communications' Web browser are in for a surprise. To get a full version of the latest Office 97 update, posted to Microsoft's Web site, downloaders must use Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4.01 browser. Netscape users can only download a "limited edition" version of the latest service release. One user explained the experience in an email to CNET News.com: "If you go up to the link with Netscape, the page loads halfway, then wipes clean, and says 'You are not running Internet Explorer 4.01, so you will get a limited edition. Please download IE 4.01,'" he wrote. Office product manager John Duncan said the dual Web page strategy is not an attempt to get Netscape browser users to switch over to IE 4.01, and insists the update will be the same for every Office 97 user regardless of what browser they use to download the patch. However, the language from the update site indicates otherwise. "Although this limited edition contains links to all Office updates, service releases, and downloads, the full edition of Office Update has many more features, such as rich, interactive catalogs of Office downloads that let you sort, filter, and expand information. The full edition is also very fast because much of the shared formatting and scripting is only downloaded once. To experience the benefits of the full edition of OfficeUpdate, you'll need to use Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or above," the company wrote. "If this isn't discriminating I don't know what is," wrote the disgruntled user. Other Office users are complaining as well. Angry reactions are growing on postings to Internet newsgroups devoted to Office, as the day goes on and more Netscape users see the posting. The circumstance is not unique to the Office update. Last year, users of Windows NT Server, the fast-growing server-side operating system, were told to use the latest version of IE--release 4.01--to install components of an "Option Pack" of updated functions.