On Sunday, June 15, 2003, at 09:58 AM, cbirds wrote:
James S Jones tapped out this message on 6/15/2003 12:38 PM
There will be no further development of Netscape.
Huh? This is pretty bad when MS can tell AOL what to do with its own products
MS gave AOL a pile of cash and in return, got an agreement from AOL to use IE as the basis of AOL's browser for seven years.
What this means is that MS controls much of what AOL can offer in the future, *directly* aiding their MSN service. (And am I the only person on the planet that thinks it's both hilarious and terrifying that MS can get away with advertising their service with a BUG for a mascot??)
You do the math. They didn't *have* to tell AOL to do anything. Besides, the only reason AOL even bought Netscape in the first place was to have a club to use over MS'es head...you don't think they ever going to do anything so silly as *use* it, did you? :-0
This is only the beginning. I'd rather doubt that Office for the Mac is going to be upgraded more than once (though they've pubically committed to that).
Now that MS owns VPC, the logical solution for future 'Mac' software from MS is an embedded version of VPC running the Windows version of their software. It'll be slow and buggy, but MS can always just say 'It's because the Mac is not a recommended platform."
It's going to be really interesting to see what they do to FWB next vis-a-vis Real PC. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if some sort of DMCA related lawsuit or charges ensue. (after, of course, FWB spends a chunk of money on fully developing RPC, and brings it to market. It worked for Sony vs Connectix, after all.)
Then, after FWB is forced to drop RPC, MS drops VPC, and voila...100% of the market. (and after the Bushies get their one or two Supreme Court justices on the bench, you can say bye-bye to things like anti-trust laws. Remember, this is America, where all men are created equal, except that corporations are more equal than humans...excuse me, I meant to say 'compliant consumer units'. )
Once IE is 'inextricably part' of the OS, MS pushes corporate america to use IIS/SQL server for internet commerce, brings out new extensions so that your bank,your online stores, your stock broker, your school, your corporate intranet, etc, etc, etc ,only work with IE, and we're screwed.
MS develops the Xbox as their 'home entertainment/internet' center, sells that into the homes; voila' defacto they get handed a monopoly on net services and OS'es.
Worse, since they're going to be able to force their 'security' measures onto the net (can't have those evil terrorists and their evil hacker open source software just do what they want on the Internet), their monopoly will have the force of law.
Welcome to the future...betcha didn't think Big Brother was going to be someone like Bill Gates, did ya?
--
"Wherever you go, there you are." - B. Banzai, Ph.D. Bruce Johnson
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