The Recent Chronicle
of Internet Software Battles

By Gregory R. Gromov

"If the company does well, I do pretty well," says Andreessen.
"If the company doesn't do well"
- his voice takes on a note of mock despair -
"I work at Microsoft."

The (Second Phase of the) Revolution Has Begun,
By Gary Wolf, Wired 2.10

Table of Contents:
1.Browsers | 2.Servers | Pre-Conclusion.
3.5 Questions | 4.Partners | 5. Internet Computer | 6. Net Itself | Conclusion

Forget about Windows versus OS/2.
Forget about the PC vs. the Macintosh.

The new platform war isn't about operating systems or hardware designs: It's about standards on the Internet.

Netscape and Microsoft are gearing up for a real battle, and what's at stake is nothing less than the future of the World-Wide Web.

Warfare on the World-Wide Web,
by Michael J. Miller, PC Magazine, November 7, 1995

"There's never been a greater time for the software industry..." Bill Gates. Internet Strategy Workshop Keynote. December 7, 1995

"The most important thing for the Web is stay ahead of Microsoft." Steve Jobs. Wired, February 1996, p.162

" Pearl Harbor Day." Time Magazine reported it when Bill Gates declared war on December 7, 1995... Jeff Sutherland

Doug Colbeth, chief executive officer of Spyglass Inc, is very clear about his company's role in the browser war:
"We are the arms dealer for the Holy War,"
he said. Spyglass licenses the basic software code for most non-Netscape browsers, including the underlying code for Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

The Spyglass View: Holy War Just Starting, by Tim Clark, INTER@CTIVE WEEK, MARCH 25, 1996

Bill Gates: On Internet browsers, we started out by licensing the Mosaic browser code from the Spyglass guys as our basis for getting going on that.

The world according to Gates By Don Tennant, InfoWorld Electric, Jan 4, 1996.

Mark Andreessen: The Microsoft browser is basically what we did with Mosaic -- I'm glad to see they've caught up to what we did two years ago.

Why Bill Gates wants to be the next Marc Andreessen, Wired, 3.12, December 1995, , p.236.












In the Web's first generation, Tim Berners-Lee launched the Uniform Resource Locator (URL), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and HTML standards with prototype Unix-based servers and browsers.

A few people noticed that the
Web might be better than Gopher.

In the second generation, Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina developed NCSA Mosaic at the University of Illinois.

Several million then suddenly noticed that the
Web might be better than sex.


In the third generation, Andreessen and Bina left NCSA to found Netscape...


From the Ether Microsoft and Netscape open some new fronts in escalating Web Wars, By Bob Metcalfe, InfoWorld, August 21, 1995, Vol. 17, Issue 34.





There are two ages of the Internet - before Mosaic, and after. The combination of Tim Berners-Lee's Web protocols, which provided connectivity, and Marc Andreesen's browser, which provided a great interface, proved explosive. In twenty-four months, the Web has gone from being unknown to absolutely ubiquitous.

A Brief History of Cyberspace, by Mark Pesce, ZDNet, October 15, 1995






Bill Gates: ...an Internet browser is a trivial piece of software. There are at least 30 companies that have written very credible Internet browsers, so that's nothing...

The world according to Gates By Don Tennant, InfoWorld Electric, Jan 4, 1996.






Browser wars: Microsoft v. Netscape

• ...once Microsoft's browser gets into the operating system (later this year) the war is over (unless Netscape can do something so fantastic that Microsoft's browser can't). Robert Scoble's email to Web Review Magazine.
  
  

PC Magazine At first glance, Internet Explorer 3.0 (IE 3.0) is the more impressive program because it integrates so tightly with Windows 95.

By John Clyman and Larry Selizer, The Browser Battle Between Microsoft and Netscape, page 40. (PC Magazine's special section: The Web at War -- The Battle for the Future of the Internet, May 28, 1996 .)






Microsoft delivers
stunning blow to Netscape
with IE 3.0


To say that Internet Explorer 3.0 is just a new browser is like saying that the Web is just some text and graphics.

After two tepid releases, Microsoft now has a white-hot Navigator-killer on its hands...

Don't drag your copy of Navigator to the trash just yet:

the first beta of IE 3.0 lacks the promised support for Java and for Netscape plug-ins. Of course, we can't conceive of Microsoft shipping the final version without these components (the product is scheduled to be out of beta this fall).

And in every other aspect, IE 3.0 for Windows 95 matches all of Navigator 3.0's newest features.

IE 3.0 also surpasses Navigator 3.0 in many ways....
C|NET Online. By Daniel Will-Harris, May 30, 1996




I have Netscape running on 4 different disparate architectures with no problem. Try doing that with IE, whether it's 2.0 or 3.0.
Jay Goldberg 's email to Web Review Magazine.




Netscape clarified this point in more details:



Navigator is available for 16 PLATFORMS:


Windows 95; Windows NT 4.0; Windows 3.1, 3.11; Mac/OS (68K); Mac/OS (PowerPC); DEC Alpha (OSF/1 2.0, 3.2); Hewlett-Packard (HP-UX 9.03, 9.05, 10.x); IBM RS/6000 (AIX 3.25); Silicon Graphics (IRIX 5.2, 5.3); Sun SPARC (Solaris 2.3, 2.4, 2.5); Sun SPARC (SunOS 4.1.3); BSDI Unix; SCO Unix; Caldera Linux; Sony MIPS-based Unix; NEC MIPS-based Unix.


... The most recent version of Explorer, however, is available only for Windows 95 and Windows NT.

Netscape's home page, Aug. 11, 1996




VIV's comments: The "16 platforms" sounds good, but... the question is: what part of the Web surfing people are
outside Windows 95 / Windows NT platforms' area and ....
what platforms' direction they are going now?




At the same time Microsoft declares:
"We've got the only browser that breaks the Internet language barrier."

So...

"We will dominate the Internet."



So spoke a Microsoft spokesman appearing on the c/net television show recently.
The new Internet Explorer is Microsoft's latest vehicle for Net domination....
But Microsoft's real ploy for dominating the Web is the next version of Windows95, code-named "Nashville" and expected out by year's end. In Nashville, the Web browser is integrated right into the Windows operating system..
One more path to World Domination By Richard Koman Web Review







...Gate reiterated Microsoft's promise to integrate browsing capabilities directly into Windows 97, replacing the need for a stand-alone browser. And he said that Microsoft would bundle Microsoft Search Server and the FrontPage Web authoring tool into the 4.0 upgrade of NT, scheduled for later this year.

Microsoft's Intranet Push , by Bill Roberts, Web Week.






When webs collide

• The current battle of the Web browsers isn't about browsing the Web at all. It's about control -- not just of your PC, but increasingly your TV, and whatever other information appliances consumers and businesses figure are worth plugging into power and network outlets. It's a battle for control of the architecture of personal and group computing through the beginning of the next decade. It's the battle for your desktop and your set top.

By Jeremy White, APC Magazine.




---





The Web Browser Marketshare:

Month	Netscape Navigator	Microsoft Internet Explorer
Aug-96	62.7%	29.1%
July-96	72.6%	15.8%
Jun-96	78.2%	8.3%
May-96	83.2%	7.0%

Data source: Web trends, Intersé Corporation.



According to the Intersé Corporation's data (see the Table above...), it seems that the Browsers' War will be over soon....





How does the process that is described by the above table's data is going?







X-Sender: bney@mail2.quiknet.com
To: view@netvalley.com (Internet Valley, Inc.)
From: Bob Ney
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 18:24:41 -0700

As an ISP, I want to give my customers a software package for their use. I contacted Netscape.

- They said they would let be customize and repackage their product, if I committed to buy 2500 the first year at $17 each.

I said OK, I can do that.

- Then they said, great please send your check for 50% of the moneys due.

That's $21,250. As a small ISP I dont have that available without dipping into my reserves.

I am then contacted by Microsoft and was told they would send me this really nice customization kit, which will build a release for Win95, Win NT, Win3.1 and install Explorer 3, Netmeeting, a commercial TCP dialer and stack. And it has a automated user sign up server built into it.

It will build a CD Rom image, if I want to distribute that way.
It configures with a wizard in about 5 minutes.
It's seamless and a really good piece of software and installer.

I said that it sounded great, how much?
- No charge. Distribute it all you want to your customers.
Have fun.

Microsoft is such a monster company that they can drop multi millions into development of a product package that they will give away.

Netscape on the other hand actually wants to make a bit of money on their product.

Thinking of myself first, I took the Microsoft software.
So will most other ISP's...



Bob Ney, QuikNet, Inc. Sacramento CA








- Oracle chief executive

Larry Ellison said an industry conference in Paris that its sometime-ally Netscape has "no chance of surviving" ...



- Netscape executives

have suggested that Ellison is hoping to talk down the price of Netscape in preparation for a takeover attempt.



Financial Times, October 3, 1996

---






Table of Contents:
1.Browsers | 2.Servers | Pre-Conclusion.
3.5 Questions | 4.Partners | 5. Internet Computer | 6. Net Itself | Conclusion



---



Part 2. Web Servers


What is Power ?

Information is power, and Netscape Server Central gives you the power to choose the right server software. Netscape Servers offer greater performance, security, and reliability than other HTTP-based servers - and they're easier to use. If you're ready to build a Web site or an internally networked web application, test drive a Netscape Server today. NETSCAPE SERVERS

"In recent month, Netscape cut prices of its server programs by up to 57 percent..." S. Bee / BNS , Feb. 13, 1996

---

What is the Market Power?

REDMOND, Wash. - Feb. 12, 1996 - Microsoft® Internet Information Server (IIS), Microsoft Corp.'s entry into the World Wide Web server market category, is now available free over the Internet.

The only Web server designed specifically for Windows NT Server, it's four times faster than Netscape Netsite server for Windows NT, offers a point-and-click setup, and enables development of a new generation of Web applications making thousands of existing database and messaging applications "Web-enabled" today. The most powerful platform for a new generation of Web applications

---

Netscape' COMPARING NETSCAPE AND MICROSOFT SERVER SOLUTIONS

In addition to costing you more (see Table ) than Netscape's server solution, there are some key differences to consider when evaluating Netscape and Microsoft server software.

---

The VIV's comments:

Netscape's COMPARING... illustrate the widely-known
" free lunch" rule: "Free" usually means "costly" .
But what about..."four times faster"?


Netscape is still keeping silence about it...




---



Netscape's answer was coming soon (after about month of silence) :



Publish your Web site easily with Netscape's new FastTrack Server beta 4. Our easy-to-use server package is
200 percent faster

than Microsoft IIS... (Netscape's Home page, May 1996)
The tests were run under Windows NT... (Netscape: benchmark report.)






Mark Andreessen:I don't see a Netscape-controled future for the Net. The Internet is too dynamic and innovative. No single company will control everything.
Our approach is straightforward: we support a wider range of open standards to a greater level of fidelity than any other company in this space that I know of.


Why Bill Gates wants to be the next Marc Andreessen, Wired, 3.12, p.236.






---

Pre-Conclusion:


Netscape's server is, in fact, little more than an interim layer between a content provider and content consumer. Databases, especially relational object databases that can mix and match page layout elements and content to meet individual consumers' needs, are the real heart of the Web.
Serving up content to Web browsers is stupid-simple; any server could deal with the problem with only a little jiggering of code, and the addition of a layer of software adds Web functionality to existing databases (see Digital Media, Vol. 5, No. 3, p. 9). That means Netscape will soon face competition from a wide range of better-funded companies, including Oracle, Informix and Microsoft, all with much larger installed bases than Netscape Navigator's 4.9 million users (assuming a 70 percent share of seven million daily Internet users). I don't accept, nor should anyone inside or outside Netscape believe, the loopy claim that 15 million people are using a Netscape Navigator browser. That's delusional.
An Open Letter to Netscape's Jim Barksdale By Mitch Ratcliffe. Digital Media Perspective , 31 January, 1996

Part 3. Microsoft and Justice Department: 5 Questions





Microsoft Corp.' long antitrust battle with the Justice department looks ready to move into a new front, as the company said ...

...federal investigators are looking into its business practices in its escalating "browsers war" with Netscape Communication Corp.

The Justice Department is investigating how Microsoft Corp. sells its Internet software to determine whether it is trying to stifle competition in the fastest-growing part of the technology industry...

The Justice Department's untitrust division has had Microsoft's business practices under scrutiny since 1993...

Today, Microsoft's products run the basic functions of nearly 90 percent of personal computers.

Bee News Services, September 20, 1996






Jim Clark: 5 Questions*
to Microsoft and Justice Department




Q#1. Monopoly

We do believe that Microsoft has tremendous advantage through the leverage on its operating system.
We do believe that monopoly can be leveraged in unfair ways.
I think it is for the Justice Department to figure out wheither antitrust laws were violated.

"On July 15, 1994, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint against Microsoft Corporation alleging violations of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act..." The US Department of Justice andour National Software Interests: Getting to the Source byMichael Tiemann & Wendell Baker.

---


Q#2. Bundling

You think it is an unfair step Microsoft is taking by bundling Microsoft Network into Windows 95? I could go even further than bundling. If someone has a monopoly on the operating system for 80 percent of the world's computers, literally, growing to 90 percent in five years, that operating system is the channelthrough which any application gets to the user.

MICROSOFT RAPS JAPANESE PC MAKERS ON SOFTWARE BUNDLING(from: New York Times Syndicate , 9/26/95)

---


Q#3. Fundamental Question

Companies like Microsoft essentially control the user interface, control the plumbing to get you to the network. Now if they control all of that, does that allow room for anyone else to run any other application? That's the fundamental question facing the Department of Justice. That's the fundamental question facing Microsoft. And that's the fundamental question facing any companythat would be a competitor of an applications facet of Microsoft's business...

Eric Nee( Upside ): "How concerned are you about the consensus that seems to be building that the stateneeds to rein in Microsoft or control what it can do?" Andy Grove (Intel): "That's one of the subjects I want to stay away from." An Interview with Andy Grove

---


Q#4. Bloody murder

If Justice decides not to do anything-- I wonder what they can do. They can file an injunction, make Microsoft stop shipping Windows 95 with those things bundled with it. Then Microsoft will scream bloody murder. Then they will stop bundling and they will offer it as a product. They'll still have an advantage. But that would be better than the way it's being bundled,because if you're going to bundle it, you're guaranteeing a significant advantage. Within six months they'll have more subscribers to their service than all of the three existing guys ( AOL, CompuServe and Prodigy ) together, would be my guess..."

America Online and Netscape are dicussing an alliance aimed at furthering their lead over Microsoft." - The WALL STREET JOURNAL, January 22, 1996, p.1

Microsoft Seeking to Derail AOL Talks With Netscape ... is trying to persuade AOL to license Microsoft Internet Software instead. The WALL STREET JOURNAL, March 7, 1996, p.A3



Internet control battle heats up: Microsoft teams up with America Online. Intensifying its dogfight with Netscape Communications, Microsoft ... announced a broad pact with America Online to promote each other's products. SBee News Services, Sbee March 13 , p.D1



It was only a few months ago that AOL was seeking the U.S. Department of Justice's scrutiny of Microsoft. CompuServe, Prodigy close to signing bundling pacts with Microsoft . By Ted Smalley Bowen. InfoWorld Electric. March 14, 1996

---


Q#5. Tough battle

Our approach is to implement it and throw it out as an open spec. Microsoft's approach is to implement it and capture the market. Our philosophy is the one open alternative to Microsoft's, yet we do get criticized for inventing and enhancing. But we don't see any alternative. We see that as building a business... Will both of these models coexist, each with half of the market? No. I believe markets in the computer industry tend to go overwhelmingly one way or the other... So it should be a tough battle...
But maybe that's why Microsoft does have its power, because you're never going to get all your enemies unified. Sun Microsystems and IBM have both called Microsoft a competitor, yet they're never going to collaborate against Microsoft .



The first signs of future alliances:



• Intel Corp. and Microsoft Inc. agreed to cross-license their technology for communicating on the Internet in a move that could lead to products that will challenge the existing telephone industry. The accord between the world's top supplier of personal computer microprocessors and the leading PC software company is designed to cultivate the PC as a communications device, the companies said.

INTEL, MICROSOFT REACH ACCORD, San Jose Mercury News, 07/18/96




• Intel & Microsoft: Intel Case Study: Microsoft
  
  
  
• Apple & Microsoft
  Share a Few Brews Once-Bitter Rivals Are Seeking to Mend Relations
  ...Apple is dispatching a full-time ambassodor to Microsoft to set up camp in the software giant's backyard....
  One of Apple's biggest problems is its soured relationships with its developers, whom it must bring back into the fold to enhance its chances of righting itself. The courtship of Microsoft, thus, could be vital to determining Apple's fate... ... company ( Microsoft) also needs Apple to stake a stronger claim to the Internet, since as many as four in 10 programs for the World Wide Web are written on Macs.
  The Wall Street Journal, April 22, 1996, B7

---

* The 5 Questions are quotes from Jim Clark: An Interview With Eric Nee
(By Eric Nee - Upside Magazine's Editor-in-Chief)






---


Table of Contents:
1.Browsers | 2.Servers | Pre-Conclusion.
3.5 Questions | 4.Partners | 5. Internet Computer | 6. Net Itself | Conclusion




---


Part 4. The "Largest List of Partners".


Jim Clark: And we probably have the largest list of partners of any company in history.


Jim Clark takes Bill Gates to task. By Don Tennant. InfoWorld


Mitch Ratcliffe: The more that I watch Netscape rack up announcements of alliances, partnerships and licenses, the more I am reminded of previous initiatives that have collapsed under their own weight: the Advanced Computing Consortium, the PowerPC alliance, Apple's Newton, General Magic's Telescript and Magic Cap, and so on. At some point Netscape is going to be whipsawed by the demands of your company's partners, blinding the company to a fatal threat...

Netscape is, in fact, educating its future competitors as it works with IBM, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Macromedia and even Sun Microsystems. IBM is learning how to build Web servers that ride atop its many customers' legacy systems, as well as how to position its Lotus Notes products to compete against Netscape. AT&T and Deutsche Telekom are soaking up the rules of market development on the Internet. Their interests are in growing network traffic, not making Netscape a new Microsoft; they are not likely to shut out non-Netscape browsers that increase network usage. Macromedia's Shockwave scripting tools for presentations on the Net will ride on any browser. Sun is probably your most dangerous potential competitor of all, as it will soon be looking for ways to grow revenues on the back of its Java programming language, the new heart of Netscape's browser....

Netscape could be destroyed by its most recent alliances, just as Aztec civilization was destroyed by the diseases and modern weapons brought by the Spaniards, who portrayed themselves as allies when they first arrived in Mexico. Sun's Java will likely be Netscape's smallpox virus; Sun's president and CEO Scott McNealy could be Cortes willing to betray Montezuma in pursuit of greater glory.

Java has stolen the future from Netscape by opening the Web to heretofore unknown competition. Once programmers and the companies they work for learn how to exploit Web connectivity, they'll being doing end runs around Netscape at every opportunity. Most unsettling of all, Sun has handed the power of the Java virus to Microsoft, which will soon have a suite of Internet products in its existing Office package; all Microsoft applications will know about and use the Net. As Java is integrated into Microsoft's OLE environment, Netscape's ambitious plan for workgroup software (still one of the most overhyped, undefined categories ever invented by the computer industry) will be realized before Netscape can capture even a sliver of the intranet market. Why? As long as Windows rests a top the Intel microprocessor platform, Microsoft can funnel Java's influence toward its own application suite


An Open Letter to Netscape's Jim Barksdale , Digital Media Perspective

New York Times Syndicate: Ellison wants Oracle to surpass Microsoft Corp. to become the biggest software company in the world...
The ``NC'' ( Network Computer) is a $500 device much like the traditional personal computer but with fewer electronic doodads. Most important to Ellison, the NC gets its computational power from a computer network, either corporate or public. Networks are where Oracle excels. ``The NC is clearly part of our strategy to dethrone Microsoft,'' Ellison told the Bloomberg Forum. ORACLE'S ELLISON PUSHES HIS NETWORK COMPUTER By KOUROSH KARIMKHANY , April 26, 1996, Bloomberg Business News

Bill Gates: "... there's no doubt that we'll have $500 PCs. The question is, will anybody buy them?" . An interview with Richard Brandt and Eric Nee. Upside.

The Wall Street Journal: Microsoft is facing strong pressure to act. Recent studies suggest that affluent U.S. households, the most ready market for new home technology, are approaching saturation of conventional PCs. Meanwhile, competitors such as Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Officer Lawrence Ellison are promoting the idea of new, $500 network computers that would weaken the need for Microsoft's flagship operating software. WSJ, March 29, 1996, B7.

Bill Gates: "You know, everybody has tried to sell $800 PCs, but nobody has bought them...." By Michael Vizard and Sandy Reed . InfoWorld Electric, March 14, 1996

The Wall Street Journal: ...division at Microsoft has been developing operating systems for television set-top decoder boxes. It is also expected to work on non-PC hardware tapping the Internet, Microsoft's answer to so-called network computers beeng proposed by Oracle Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. One effort, code-named Pegasus, is expexted to produce an operating system that combines the earlier Winpad efforts in hand-held computing with other software for communication devices... WSJ, April 25, 1996, B11.

Larry Ellison: "PCs only reach 30 percent of households, but NCs could get to 90 percent. And once you get to 90 percent penetration, lots of things change -- the way we manage health care, our postal system, our economy and culture." Internet World exposition's speach, April 30, 1996, San Jose CA.

C|Net News: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison wants to make the Network Computer as ubiquitous as the telephone and he wants the telephone companies to help him do it...
"The goal of the NC is nothing less than universal [Internet] service in the same sense as universal telephone service," Ellison said.

Some telephone companies are intrigued by that possibility...
"This is a natural for us. [The NC] moves the complexity of devices out of homes and onto the networks," said Bruce MacCormack, president and chief operating officer of MTS, Canada1s fifth largest telephone company...

As for Pacific Bell, it thinks that NCs can open up schools to Net access and is planning an effort to equip San Francisco public schools with NCs by fall. C|NET Online, By Nick Wingfield, May 25, 1996

Bee News Services: There currently are three network computers close to the market, two due next month and a third before the end of the year.

The two due in June:

WEBster. Created by View-Call America... The $300 box connects to your TV for its display and to a phone for its data. Inside reside a 32 bit microprocessor, 4 megabytes of memory, 2 megabytes of ROM and 28,800 ... modem.

Transphone. About the size of a notebook computer... (in gray-scale for $350 or passive-matrix color for $500) and a keyboard... 14,400-bps modem , ports for monitor, printer and mouse, and a credit-card swipe strip.

Pippin, due in U.S. stores by the end of the year. Created by Apple Computer... Machine already is being marketed in Japan ... at a price of $648 ... is a basically a CD-ROM player that attaches to a television set and comes with a 14,400-bps modem for accessing the Net.


SacrBee, May 21, 1996, p.E1-2

To test his theory, Ellison has commissioned Acorn, a British computer maker, to help design a "networked computer" to his specifications, with a keyboard, a processor, some random-access memory, a communications link and not much else.

HOW CHEAP CAN COMPUTERS GET?, by JOSHUA COOPER RAMOS, TIME Magazine, January 22, 1996, Volume 147, No. 4

... in London, Acorn Computer Group Plc, the company responsible for developing the network computer specification for Oracle Corp., will launch what it claims is the world's first NC, called the NetStation.
Sun World Online, June 1996




---





Bill Gates's SIPS vs. Larry Ellison's NC:




Microsoft's chairman declares a Simply Interactive PC (SIPC) approach as an MS-alternative to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's NC (Network Computer).
See also: Simplifying the PC, by Bill Gates, Microsoft Magazine, June 1996





Once again, about price barrier...


Industry analysts have repeatedly pointed out that, even with rapidly falling prices for memory and disk storage, getting the price of a desktop PC below $1,000 is difficult if it is designed to run current applications. By not carrying the ballast of legacy-app focused OSes, the NC has a clear edge in cost terms.

PC checkmate: Will the NC take the crown?,
by Angus Kidman, Australian Personal Computer, Cover feature - Network computer, August 1996

---






Part 6. The Net Itself




Steve Jobs: We have a two-year window. If the Web doesn't reach ubiquity in the next two years, Microsoft will own it. And that will be the end of it. Wire, February 1996, p.162


Digital, MCI and Microsoft Ally to Offer Integrated Business Solutions Companies Expand Relationships to Deliver Intranet, Messaging And Groupware Solutions From MCI. ( April 9, 1996 Press Conference, Bellevue WA) .




The MCI/Digital/Microsoft team poses a direct challenge to AT&T Corp., which has moved aggressively into Internet services and whose partners include International Business Machines Corp, and Netscape Communications Corp., two of Microsoft's bitter rivals. WSJ, April 8, 1996





---


Conclusion:






Microsoft Declares War


Bill Gates was prodded by Wall Street into waging a full-scale war for the Internet market.

Michael Neubarth, Internet World, March 1996.

It's a war, a world war...
Mary McCaffrey, "Alex Brown & Sons", New York

Microsoft's main Question: Is Microsoft Evil?
Slate Magazine, June 26, 1996 © 1996 Microsoft and/or its suppliers.


Netscape's Mark Andreessen:
I dont think it's a matter of good and evil --
Microsoft is a a competitor, and a smart one. Jim(Clark) and I both think it's important to point out what Microsoft is doing in various areas, since they are very good at using FUD [fear, uncertainty, doubt] to attempt to paralize the market.

Why Bill Gates wants to be the next Marc Andreessen, Wired, 3.12, p.236.

Question : Netscape has certainly come on awfully strong.


Bill Gates: How many software developers do you think they have?




By Don Tennant, InfoWorld Electric, Jan 4, 1996.

More than 80 PC makers will preinstall Internet Explorer 3.0 on machines they sell, and more than 5,000 developers are creating Web sites best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer, according to Microsoft...

In an alliance with America Online, Microsoft established Internet Explorer as the default browser for Web viewing on future versions of AOL. Navigator, in contrast, will be the default browser only for AOL's smaller Internet service, GNN.

Netscape is now in the fight of its young life

Microsoft vs. Netscape: The Battle Begins. By Dana Blankenhorn, Timothy Haight, Net Guide, May 1, 1996

"God is on the side of the big battalions." said Napoleon.

Very few times in warfare have smaller forces overtaken bigger forces...


Netscape's Jim Barksdale, Wired 3.02





Netscape's Jim Clark:

I don't have anything against Microsoft,
except that they want to kill us.
Art of Netscape's war. By Larry Lange, ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING TIMES 13, 1996

Shares in Netscape Communications Corp. fell Monday ( July 22, 1996) after the New York Times published a front-page article about the Internet software development efforts of rival Microsoft Corp. ...
Netscape close down ..., a 12 percent decline, ...

SacBee, July 23, 1996, p.D1

Microsoft may still be No. 2 in the Internet race, but it's rapidly closing the gap. What's more, Microsoft has forgotten more about PR and marketing than Netscape ever learned.

The contrast between the two companies was highlighted the day after Clark induced mass sedation when Microsoft's group vice president, Paul Maritz, wowed the crowd with the kind of polished, four-star presentation that the Redmondians seem to be able to do with their eyes closed.

Just like his boss, Maritz promised a lot of stuff that's still not here. But he generated excitement and energy and buzz. The upshot was to create the kind of halo effect that will pay dividends when it comes time for developers and corporate shoppers to make their buying and investment decisions. ....

Of Silicon Valley and Sominex, by Charles Cooper, PC Week, June 5, 1996.

Table of Contents:
1.Browsers | 2.Servers | Pre-Conclusion.
3.5 Questions | 4.Partners | 5. Internet Computer | 6. Net Itself | Conclusion

Software market browser www web internet server network pc personal computer microsoft netscape oracle Jim Barksdale Jim Clark Bill Gates Marc Andreessen Michael Neubarth Don Tennant InfoWorld Intranet Digital MCI Steve Jobs Angus Kidman Australian Personal Computer Magazine Journal Jeff Sutherland Slate Internet World Wire Sun World Online NetStation Acorn Computer Group Plc Java TIME JOSHUA COOPER RAMOS Ellison Pippin Apple Pacific Bell Bruce MacCormack MTS Nick Wingfield C|NET Online Larry Ellison nc NC WSJ Pegasus Wall Street Richard Brandt Eric Nee New York Times Sun Mitch Ratcliffe Intel IBM CompuServe AOL America Online BUNDLING Department of Justice Sherman Act antitrust laws Richard Koman Daniel Will-Harris PC Magazine Bob Metcalfe University of Illinois Mark Pesce Tim Clark Spyglass INTER@CTIVE WEEK Doug Colbeth Michael J. Miller Software market browser www web internet server network pc personal computer microsoft netscape oracle Jim Barksdale Jim Clark Bill Gates Marc Andreessen Michael Neubarth Don Tennant InfoWorld Intranet Digital MCI Steve Jobs Angus Kidman Australian Personal Computer Magazine Journal Jeff Sutherland Slate Internet World Wire Sun World Online NetStation Acorn Computer Group Plc Java TIME JOSHUA COOPER RAMOS Ellison Pippin Apple Pacific Bell Bruce MacCormack MTS Nick Wingfield C|NET Online Larry Ellison nc NC WSJ Pegasus Wall Street Richard Brandt Eric Nee New York Times Sun Mitch Ratcliffe Intel IBM CompuServe AOL America Online BUNDLING Department of Justice Sherman Act antitrust laws Richard Koman Daniel Will-Harris PC Magazine Bob Metcalfe University of Illinois Mark Pesce Tim Clark Spyglass INTER@CTIVE WEEK Doug Colbeth Michael J. Miller Software market browser www web internet server network pc personal computer microsoft netscape oracle Jim Barksdale Jim Clark Bill Gates Marc Andreessen Michael Neubarth Don Tennant InfoWorld Intranet Digital MCI Steve Jobs Angus Kidman Australian Personal Computer Magazine Journal Jeff Sutherland Slate Internet World Wire Sun World Online NetStation Acorn Computer Group Plc Java TIME JOSHUA COOPER RAMOS Ellison Pippin Apple Pacific Bell Bruce MacCormack MTS Nick Wingfield C|NET Online Larry Ellison nc NC WSJ Pegasus Wall Street Richard Brandt Eric Nee New York Times Sun Mitch Ratcliffe Intel IBM CompuServe AOL America Online BUNDLING Department of Justice Sherman Act antitrust laws Richard Koman Daniel Will-Harris PC Magazine Bob Metcalfe University of Illinois Mark Pesce Tim Clark Spyglass INTER@CTIVE WEEK Doug Colbeth Michael J. Miller Software market browser www web internet server network pc personal computer microsoft netscape oracle Jim Barksdale Jim Clark Bill Gates Marc Andreessen Michael Neubarth Don Tennant InfoWorld Intranet Digital MCI Steve Jobs Angus Kidman Australian Personal Computer Magazine Journal Jeff Sutherland Slate Internet World Wire Sun World Online NetStation Acorn Computer Group Plc Java TIME JOSHUA COOPER RAMOS Ellison Pippin Apple Pacific Bell Bruce MacCormack MTS Nick Wingfield C|NET Online Larry Ellison nc NC WSJ Pegasus Wall Street Richard Brandt Eric Nee New York Times Sun Mitch Ratcliffe Intel IBM CompuServe AOL America Online BUNDLING Department of Justice Sherman Act antitrust laws Richard Koman Daniel Will-Harris PC Magazine Bob Metcalfe University of Illinois Mark Pesce Tim Clark Spyglass INTER@CTIVE WEEK Doug Colbeth Michael J. Miller Software market browser www web internet server network pc personal computer microsoft netscape oracle Jim Barksdale Jim Clark Bill Gates Marc Andreessen Michael Neubarth Don Tennant InfoWorld Intranet Digital MCI Steve Jobs Angus Kidman Australian Personal Computer Magazine Journal Jeff Sutherland Slate Internet World Wire Sun World Online NetStation Acorn Computer Group Plc Java TIME JOSHUA COOPER RAMOS Ellison Pippin Apple Pacific Bell Bruce MacCormack MTS Nick Wingfield C|NET Online Larry Ellison nc NC WSJ Pegasus Wall Street Richard Brandt Eric Nee New York Times Sun Mitch Ratcliffe Intel IBM CompuServe AOL America Online BUNDLING Department of Justice Sherman Act antitrust laws Richard Koman Daniel Will-Harris PC Magazine Bob Metcalfe University of Illinois Mark Pesce Tim Clark Spyglass INTER@CTIVE WEEK Doug Colbeth Michael J. Miller Software market browser www web internet server network pc personal computer microsoft netscape oracle Jim Barksdale Jim Clark Bill Gates Marc Andreessen Michael Neubarth Don Tennant InfoWorld Intranet Digital MCI Steve Jobs Angus Kidman Australian Personal Computer Magazine Journal Jeff Sutherland Slate Internet World Wire Sun World Online NetStation Acorn Computer Group Plc Java TIME JOSHUA COOPER RAMOS Ellison Pippin Apple Pacific Bell Bruce MacCormack MTS Nick Wingfield C|NET Online Larry Ellison nc NC WSJ Pegasus Wall Street Richard Brandt Eric Nee New York Times Sun Mitch Ratcliffe Intel IBM CompuServe AOL America Online BUNDLING Department of Justice Sherman Act antitrust laws Richard Koman Daniel Will-Harris PC Magazine Bob Metcalfe University of Illinois Mark Pesce Tim Clark Spyglass INTER@CTIVE WEEK Doug Colbeth Michael J. Miller Software market browser www web internet server network pc personal computer microsoft netscape oracle Jim Barksdale Jim Clark Bill Gates Marc Andreessen Michael Neubarth Don Tennant InfoWorld Intranet Digital MCI Steve Jobs Angus Kidman Australian Personal Computer Magazine Journal Jeff Sutherland Slate Internet World Wire Sun World Online NetStation Acorn Computer Group Plc Java TIME JOSHUA COOPER RAMOS Ellison Pippin Apple Pacific Bell Bruce MacCormack MTS Nick Wingfield C|NET Online Larry Ellison nc NC WSJ Pegasus Wall Street Richard Brandt Eric Nee New York Times Sun Mitch Ratcliffe Intel IBM CompuServe AOL America Online BUNDLING Department of Justice Sherman Act antitrust laws Richard Koman Daniel Will-Harris PC Magazine Bob Metcalfe University of Illinois Mark Pesce Tim Clark Spyglass INTER@CTIVE WEEK Doug Colbeth Michael J. Miller