Browser Wars Redux: Don't Touch That Meme
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft broke Netscape's power by breaking Web standards: it constantly
| added new, non-standard features to Internet Explorer so that Web sites
| written to utilise them would not be rendered properly by Netscape. Since
| Microsoft owned the desktop then as now, and since Internet Explorer was
| bundled with it, the company could be sure that its standards would be
| supported over anything that Netscape tried to introduce. Gradually more and
| more sites appeared sub-standard when viewed on Netscape, forcing people
| either to move to Internet Explorer or run two browsers in parallel,
| reinforcing Microsoft's features yet further.
|
| It was only once Internet Explorer succeeded in ousting Netscape Navigator as
| the dominant browser that Microsoft called a halt to the campaign. In fact,
| it not only stopped adding new twists, it stopped innovating at all for
| years.
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http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=285&blogid=14
Related:
Halloween Memo I Confirmed and Microsoft's History on Standards
,----[ Quote ]
| By the way, if you are by any chance trying to figure out Microsoft's policy
| toward standards, particularly in the context of ODF-EOXML, that same
| Microsoft page is revelatory, Microsoft's answer to what the memo meant when
| it said that Microsoft could extend standard protocols so as to deny
| Linux "entry into the market":
|
| Q: The first document talked about extending standard protocols as a way
| to "deny OSS projects entry into the market." What does this mean?
|
| A: To better serve customers, Microsoft needs to innovate above standard
| protocols. By innovating above the base protocol, we are able to deliver
| advanced functionality to users. An example of this is adding
| transactional support for DTC over HTTP. This would be a value-add and
| would in no way break the standard or undermine the concept of standards,
| of which Microsoft is a significant supporter. Yet it would allow us to
| solve a class of problems in value chain integration for our Web-based
| customers that are not solved by any public standard today. Microsoft
| recognizes that customers are not served by implementations that are
| different without adding value; we therefore support standards as the
| foundation on which further innovation can be based.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070127202224445
Gates Deposition Audio and Video
,----[ Quote ]
| Here is our local copy of the depositions of Bill Gates in the
| Microsoft anti-trust suit. We did our best to convert the
| original Windows Media files into an Open format, ogg. Your
| webmaster is responsible for the video transcoding, the
| audio-only files are contributed by a Groklaw member that
| requested to stay anonymous.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=GatesDepo
Related:
,----[ Quote ]
| From: Bill Gates
| Sent: Saturday, December 05, 1989 9:44 AM
| To: Bob Muglia (Exchange); Jon DeVaan; Steven Sinofsky
| Cc: Paul Mariz
| Subject: Office rendering
|
| One thing we have got to change is our strategy -- allowing Office
| documents to be rendered very well by OTHER PEOPLES BROWSERS is one of the
| most destructive things we could do to the company.
|
| We have to stop putting any effort into this and make sure that Office
| documents very well depends on PROPRIETARY IE capabilities.
|
| Anything else is suicide for our platform. This is a case where Office has
| to to destroy Windows.
`----
http://www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/2000/PX02991.pdf
|
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