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

To: drmorgan who wrote (23003)	3/19/1999 11:19:00 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Respond to of 24154

Slimmer Version of Browser Is Rolled Out by Microsoft nytimes.com An amusing bit: Windows 98 can be set to log on to the Internet whenever the computer is turned on, to check for updates or repairs to the operating system. People who had employed this feature turned on their computers today to see a "Critical Update" notice, informing them that the new browser was available. But traffic at the download site was so heavy that many were unable to log on. Uh, that sounds like a heavy duty scalability problem. On the other hand, anybody who'd set Windows up to auto-update must be feeling very lucky indeed. On a better note: Until now, Netscape and Microsoft have sought to attract customers with new features. But Microsoft seems to be retreating from that strategy. It reduced the number of menu buttons on the browser's top line to 11 from 13 and cut the size of the most basic browser functions by about half compared with version 4.0 -- to 6.5 megabytes versus 14 megabytes. But consumers who choose this skeletal version will have to download additional features as needed while surfing the Web. The fully loaded browser, including programs necessary to view multimedia and other nontext information on the Internet, will still be 29 megabytes, verses 40 for version 4.0. Mehdi said the changes were driven by consumer research indicating that customers wanted a simpler browser. Hey, maybe it sucks less! The more features side might be in temporary retreat! I might actually have to check this one out! Cheers, Dan.

To: drmorgan who wrote (23003)	3/20/1999 10:56:00 AM
From: Thure Meyer	Respond to of 24154

Derek, I read the CNET article. A little smarmy don't you think? With headings like "Extra Extra", "Beyond Smart", only to end the review with a very prosaic: " Still, IE 5.0 is a substantial improvement over IE 4.0--especially for new users--making it on a par with Navigator 4.5's searching". If you remember, during the trial it was pointed out that downloading and installing at home was not the dominant distribution channel. It will be interesting to see how Netscape matches up here. I would almost be willing to bet that the Netscape user base will download more than the MS Explorer base. Another interesting fact is the absolute schizophrenia between MS marketing and how MS represented itself at the trial. IE-5.0 is marketed as a separate product, reviewed as a separate product, downloaded .... I would think if it is an integral part of the operating system that it should be called Windows 98/IE5.0. Anyway, do you know what MS has done with JAVA, HTML, XML and XOPEN type standards in this implementation? Thure