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  • Subject: Microsoft in the News
  • From: "Al Barsa, Jr." <barsa@xxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 09:13:35 -0400

Hi,

Did anybody see the news about Microsoft?  For those who don't know this, I
am an admitted news-aholic.

I have quoted the following from:

http://www.cnn.com/

There's more if you go to this page, however caution, the page literally
changes hourly.

Al

Here's the text (pardon the formatting):


>                     Microsoft rivals say
>                     browser war is really
>                     about Windows
>
>                     October 20, 1997
>                     Web posted at: 11:18 p.m. EDT (0318
>                     GMT) 
>
>                     NEW YORK (CNN) --
>                     To the average computer
>                     user, the browser war is
>                     about freedom of choice.
>                     Microsoft's rivals say the
>                     battle with the U.S. Justice Department over software
>                     used to surf the Internet is, in the end, about the
>                     survival of the company's Windows operating system. 
>
>                     By using its Internet Explorer to try to gain control of
>                     the World Wide Web browser market -- a market
>                     currently dominated by Netscape Communications Inc.
>                     -- Microsoft is trying to protect its operating system,
>                     which currently runs more than 80 percent of personal
>                     computers in the United States. 
>
>                     "This is not about the Internet," said Roberta Katz,
>                     general counsel at Netscape. "It's about doing away
>                     with competition in the browser market because the
>                     browser threatens the operating system." 
>
>                                             The Justice Department on
>                                             Monday asked a federal
>                                             court in Washington to hold
>                                             Microsoft in contempt of a
>                                             1995 court order barring the
>                                             Redmond, Washington, firm
>                     from anti-competitive licensing, an action a Microsoft
>                     spokesman says is "unfortunate and misguided." 
>
>                     Justice accused Microsoft of using its Windows
>                     "monopoly" to force computer makers to include the
>                     Microsoft Internet browser in pre-loaded software,
>                     putting competitors such as Netscape at a competitive
>                     disadvantage. 
>
>                     Competitor: Microsoft designers have
>                     advantage
>
>                     Control of the operating system market allows
>                     Microsoft to set standards that software designers have
>                     to use, whether they want to or not, said Mike Morris,
>                     general counsel for Sun Microsystems, another
>                     Microsoft competitor. 
>
>                                                 "When they control the
>                                                 standards it means they
>                                                 know first what's coming
>                                                 down the pipe," he said.
>                                                 "Their developers will
>                                                 get a leg up." 
>
>                                                 Cliff Stoll, who writes
>                                                 about high technology
>                                                 and culture, explains
>                     Microsoft's omnipresence in the world of computers. 
>
>                     "Every time most people turn their computers on, the
>                     first word that appears on their screen is Microsoft.
>                     When they log on to the Internet, the first ... (thing)
>                     they see is welcome to Microsoft's home. 
>
>                     "Result: They don't just have a monopoly on what's in
>                     your machine. They also have high pressure on what
>                     we get on your screen later," Stoll said. 
>
>                     But the Internet, said Netscape's Katz, makes operating
>                     systems such as Windows 95 less relevant. As use of
>                     the Internet becomes common, and software for using
>                     it more sophisticated, it won't matter if computers run
>                     Windows 95 or not. 
>
>                     And if Windows is irrelevant, Microsoft's dominance of
>                     word processors, spreadsheets and programming tools
>                     could come crashing down. 
>
>                     Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray said, "The facts
>                     will show that Microsoft is in full compliance with the
>                     consent decree." 
>
>                     Murray said the decree "specifically allows Microsoft to
>                     integrate new features into the operating system. That's
>                     what consumers want, and that's how the software
>                     industry has operated for years." 
>
>                     The spokesman also said that "we have never tried to
>                     stop any computer manufacturer from shipping any
>                     other browser." 
>
>                     Blurring the lines between computer,
>                     network?
>
>                     Crude spreadsheets and word processors already have
>                     been written to run on any computer and can be used
>                     directly from the Web. Such programs are a direct
>                     threat to Microsoft, which reaps large revenues from its
>                     own word processing and spreadsheet programs that
>                     are tightly integrated into Windows 95. 
>
>                     And Netscape produces
>                     Communicator, an
>                     all-in-one program that
>                     handles e-mail and the
>                     World Wide Web and
>                     allows users to collaborate
>                     on projects over a
>                     network. As more data
>                     resides on such networks
>                     and not on individual
>                     machines, the software
>                     used to get that data -- whether Communicator,
>                     Explorer or Windows 95 -- becomes more important. 
>
>                     Explorer is the default browser for Windows 95. To
>                     use Netscape's browser, which currently has about 70
>                     percent of the market, users often must download the
>                     program and install it separately. 
>
>                     Microsoft's next version of its operating system,
>                     Windows 98, promises to completely integrate Explorer
>                     into the operating system, blurring the line between
>                     computer and network and forcing Netscape off the
>                     desktop of millions of personal computers. 
>
>                     Reaction to the browser battle is mixed. 
>
>                     One woman in San Francisco said, "I feel
>                     uncomfortable being forced to use any product,
>                     regardless of the brand name." 
>
>                     Others aren't fazed. One man, who observed that there
>                     are many online providers that give access to the
>                     Internet, said, "I think we still have a choice." 
>
>                     Consumer activist Ralph Nader praised the Justice
>                     Department's move as a "a welcome first step for
>                     consumers." 
>
>                     James Love, director of the Consumer Project on
>                     Technology in Washington, D.C., a group founded by
>                     Nader in 1995, asked whether the Justice Department
>                     would force Microsoft "to put some daylight between
>                     the browser and the operating system." 
>
>                     "That could be highly significant," Love said. "The
>                     browser is the operating system of the Internet." 

Al Barsa, Jr. - Account for Midrange-L
Barsa Consulting, LLC.  
400 > 390

Phone:  914-251-9400
Fax:    914-251-9406





Private mail should be sent to barsa@ibm.net
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