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

To: Gerald R. Lampton who wrote (21810)	11/27/1998 2:44:00 AM
From: Bearded One	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

1. AOL's distribution on the Windows desktop makes hash of the government's market foreclosure arguments. It depends on what you think the government's argument is or should be. The government never made the claim that Microsoft successfully closed off all distribution channels to Netscape. The goverment made the claim that Microsoft closed off the major distribution channels to Netscape-- the OEMs, and that it did this for a particular purpose-- to control the browser market. I go back to my old analogy-- you don't go free if you shoot at somebody and miss. The fundamental argument of Microsoft seems to be that the market is so competitive that they should be allowed to do anything. So I guess their argument is that they can shoot at everyone, because everyone can dodge if they're smart enough. It doesn't make sense to me. 2. By the time the government gets the court to impose any sort of remedy, the market will have rendered it obsolete. This is the "well, the guys already dead, no use arresting anyone." I don't believe it. If you look at the charts of how Microsoft IE 4.0 achieved marketshare, it's obvious that if Microsoft didn't have the OEM channel both for IE directly and to threaten AOL, then Netscape would be somewhere around 80-90% marketshare. There would be a true competitor to the Windows platform. Furthermore, Microsoft's abuse of its knowledge of the OS internals is ongoing and must stop. As long as most people need Windows, the 'market' can't remedy that.