Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by gnaritas 3713 days ago
> IE was much more stable

Until Microsoft stopped keeping up with everyone else. You're reinforcing his point, Microsoft would have put everyone else out of business had it not been for antitrust issues. Competition is vital even when it's sub-par because it won't always be.
1 comments
WalterBright 3713 days ago
> Microsoft would have put everyone else out of business

Nobody knows what might have happened. The point is, it didn't happen and never did. And today Microsoft finds it very difficult to compete in the phone, search, and cloud market, and none of that difficulty is due to the Justice Dept's actions.

link
gnaritas 3713 days ago
> The point is, it didn't happen and never did.

Wrong, it did happen, to Netscape. Microsoft's bundling of IE for free destroyed Netscape as a viable business.

link
WalterBright 3713 days ago
Every device I buy comes bundled with a free browser, along with a long laundry list of other bundled utilities. The idea that a browser is somehow special doesn't stand up, and special if it comes with Windows even less so. Linux also comes with tons of free software that is hard to compete with.

I know for a fact that Netscape was an inferior product to IE. I downloaded IE and uninstalled Netscape. I made an extra effort to not use Netscape anymore, because it was nearly unusable due to crashing. Maybe if Netscape had a better product, I'd be sympathetic.

It's not a conspiracy if an inferior product fails in the marketplace. Happens all the time.

link
gnaritas 3713 days ago
The quality of Netscape's product is not relevant. It is only relevant that Microsoft used anti-competitive practices to try and put them out of business. As you can't seem to tell the difference, there is little point in conversing.
link
WalterBright 3713 days ago
Of course it is relevant. It is perfectly adequate to explain the demise of Netscape. Microsoft didn't make Netscape crash, Netscape did.

Ironically, I use Chrome now because IE crashes constantly when accessing github.com.

I presume you mean the "anti-competitive practice" of including it with Windows. Windows is full of utilities that come with it, ditto with every other operating system before or since. Why is a browser special? Why are other companies entitled to not have competition from Microsoft? What do you make of Linux coming bundled with huge swaths of quality free software?

> As you can't seem to tell the difference

You're quite right :-)

link