popular sites & microsoft

There is good news for you:

Netscape 6.1.

Completely rebuilt and open source. I haven't tested it yet, but I only heard positive things so far.

Quote: Originally posted by Jack Michaelson
Netscape 6.1.

Completely rebuilt and open source. I haven't tested it yet, but I only heard positive things so far.

i just downloaded it and had a quick look at it. looks somehow weired, i need some more time to get a better feeling for it.

but today is a new IE-beta-release, competition goes on. hadn't have a look at it yet. anyone?

Yeah, it is scary. I heard something somewhere - can't remember where - that MS thinks that everything anyone would ever want to do on the internet can be done on their sites! That makes me so mad and so baffled at the same time. They're trying to take over everything and repress the fundamental free nature of the web. What scares me even more is that people must be buying into it if they're getting that much traffic.

About NS 6.1 - for some reason I don't like it as well as mozilla 0.91 - there's still a few bugs with bookmarks (ie. NS 6.1 won't let me delete a couple of preset bookmarks, mozilla doesn't want to let me manipulate them the way I want to). But overall a good browser - takes some getting used to after using IE for so long. When I was still on dial-up I found that mozilla rendered pages a lot faster than IE.

Well... if we didn't have Microsoft today, we wouldn't be this far in technology. Yet, I agree with you Megan, they are trying to "take over everything." What can I say, all they see are dollar signs... $$$ ... they're too hungry for it.

I do agree MS is trying to be too involved in too many things. Instead of getting involved with Ultimate TV and the X-Box, I wish they would stick to software/computers.

Did anyone get this problem? everytime I try to install Netscape products in my W2K, the system resources becomes low (virtual memory low) and the program won't start. I also encounter an error everytime I tried to launch NS 6.0
So, I have to stick with IE 5.5 for the rest of my sad days. Anyway, I heard in another forum that IE 6.0 is actually worse (in term of user's freedom of choice) than IE 5.5 ... any comments about this before I download IE 6.0?

Actually Microsoft's latest strategy is scarier than any. What they want to do is to buy out software patents in addition to the ones that they already own. Once that is done, they will go after Open-Source developers in an attempt to stop Open Source. They really don't even care if the case is that great. With their deep pockets, they can sue quite a few developers. The only way these developers be able to get out of this is either to hire a lawyer, which most can't afford, or settle with MS by not developing. Pretty scary. The only thing they are waiting on now is a favorable ruling in their antitrust case. So think about this:
Instead of Apache, we all use IIs server.
Instead of PHP, we all use ASP.
Instead of MySQL, we all use SQL Server.

Get the idea.

So what's wrong with buying patents? Nothing illegal or unethical about buying something.

Quote: Originally posted by Jaiem
So what's wrong with buying patents? Nothing illegal or unethical about buying something.

You missed the point. Nothing at all wrong with buying or owning software patents. The problem comes with enforcing those patents. Software patents rarely hold up in court. Microsoft knows this but they really don't care because they can certainly afford to drag these developers into court. Most developers won't be able to afford pay the legal fees so they will have to settle.

I have read this thread with great interest, but one thing bothers me.

On what grounds could Microsoft take developers to court ?

Mairving,

Since I use IIS, ASP, & SQL already I guess I'll be one of the "chosen ones"!

Seriously though, I understand where you're coming from but I think you're blowing it out of proportion. Not only will Apache, PHP, MySQL, still be around for a long time, there will be new technologies from new companies that we don't even know about yet, Microsoft can never stop that. At best, they can buy this new technology and incorporate it into their software.

** thinks **

I wish Bill would return some of my phone calls, I stick up for his company all the time, it's payback time!

I must admit I have always used and admired Micosoft products but in my mail box the other day I received this which makes me wonder. It's from AddMe!'s weekly newsletter, I've checked it out & unfortunately it is all true...

Quote: From AddMe.com
My web site is uniquely mine. It is a product of my imagination, my sweat, my brain and my frustration. I have spent many sleepless nights and countless long days adding just the perfect content to communicate exactly what I wanted to say.

Now Microsoft has come along with a "brilliant" idea. They want to piggyback their own selected content on top of that work. The idea is to have their products (such as Internet Explorer and the Office suite) scan web pages and documents for keywords and phrases known to the Microsoft. Any of these that are found would be underlined with a special purple "squiggle" to show that they are "smart tags".

Anyone viewing the page could then click on the smart tag and be transported to a Microsoft web site for more information. For example, you could write a web page about the Grand Canyon, and the phrase "Grand Canyon" could be underlined, allowing your visitors to check out the Expedia.Com page about how to book travel to the area.

Why does Microsoft want to do this? It's really very simple - to make an incredible amount of money. Look at it this way, Microsoft suddenly would have at their disposal every single document viewed with a new Microsoft product as a potential advertisement. Wow. That's power. No, this is an understatement of incredible magnitude. This is more than power - this is the harnessing of everyone's creative energy into a huge global advertising tool. It totally staggers the imagination.

You could be looking at a newspaper site, reading an article about train travel, and click on numerous links to Microsoft sites (and presumably third party sites which paid Microsoft for the privilege) selling train related products and services. If you read a classified ad on that same newspaper site selling an automobile, the word "Cadillac" could be underlined with a smart tag linking to a Cadillac dealer.

Content (the tags) are added dynamically to web pages by the browser without the permission of the person who created the pages (the webmaster or author). While strictly speaking this might not violate copyright laws (but it might be considered vandalism), it sure is rude. In fact, most people would consider it highly unethical.

As an example, suppose you bought a book through a book club. Before it was shipped to you, someone opened the book and examined every single page, adding comments here and there about how you could purchase this or get more information about that. You would be very annoyed if you were the author, you'd probably be livid if you were the publisher of the book, and you'd almost certainly return it if you were the customer.

Scary stuff eh? There is a way round this though..You can add a special meta-tag that you have to add to each and every page to prevent SmartTags defacing your site but why should we have to do this!?

Worse to come...There has been outrage over this new smart-tag so Microsoft may have backed down for the time being but other companies will jump on the bandwagon, letting Microsoft off the hook and taking forced adverts to a new and unprecedented level...

Peter, actually I used to be a Microsoft fan. They have just done too much garbage lately for me to give them my support. As far me blowing it out of proportion, hopefully I am. I have just seen them do this to too many companies. Microsoft's philosophy like the 'Highlander's' is that There can be only one. In a lot of ways Microsoft been good for the consumer. They have been good for the consumer in order to gain market share. But how good will they be for the consumer when they are the only one left. I think that they are already a lot more arrogant than they have been in the past.

Smart tags are still around. They are incorporated into IE 6.0 and Office XP. A couple of other companies have also developed their own version. Again maybe a bonus for the consumer but not for the developer.

Yeah,

I used to be a MS-fan, too.
I made a lot of money in the late 80s with Windows-Software.
Then .... they crushed me - sorry, I'm not allowed to talk about the case, well, I am, but I'm not allowed to tell the truth.

"if we didn't have Microsoft today, we wouldn't be this far in technology"

Well, actually there are dozens of studies that show that we would be much further in technology without MS.
There are lots of reasons for this, but here is the one I find easiest to understand.
1. Competition improves/enforces Development.
2. From ~1988 till ~1996 MS crushed Competition (in some very unfair ways)
3. No Competition -> (almost) no development, low quality, high prices.

I guess thans to MS-tactics we (=society) lost at least 10years, maybe more, since we are still cleaning up the mess.

anti
ps:
As usual these is my personal subjective opinion.
It is based on my personal experiences and knowledge and the research of others, but NOT objective FACTS.

To prove your point - IE 6 just came out with very few technological improvements over 5.5. There is very little competition in the browser market right now so hey, why bother supporting new standards when you've got no competition. Mozilla, and therefore NS 6 took forever long to get into a usable state, lost a large chunk of the browser market and as a result stopped pushing MS to improve their own product. If this domination doesn't change it could take a very long time for some of these exciting new standards to become available. It's sad really.