Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Marc Andreesen

Author:Zac
Posted:9/10/1999; 11:35:00 PM
Topic:Marc Andreesen
Msg #:10914
Prev/Next:10913 / 10915

I've been reading quite alot of the material about Andreesen's departure from AOL and had two thoughts.

First, is this really a big suprise? I've been waiting for this to happen since the AOL/Sun/Netscape deal went through.

Secondly, despite what he has done with Netscape I can't see that he will be regarded as anything else than a person who was part of a great idea (Mosaic) and was in the right place at the right time to make a bagfull of cash out of it. But since that initial concept Andreesen and Netscape have not made any real difference to the market. The company evolved the browser and tried, very unsuccessfully, to develop server based tools. I am sure that Marc's a great guy and probably not that bad of a programmer but in terms of affect and influence he doesn't rate the attention he has received.

I think the attention focused on Andreesen is not so much a result of what he has done but more a result of the industry's bizarre fixation with the instant billionaires that the net economy has created and the belief that anyone that rich must be really smart.

This doesn't have to be the case and Andreesen, like Gates before him, proves that sometimes being in the right place is more important than being really bright.

I wish the man well but I will be quite shocked if Andreesen turns out to be anything more than a younger version of Paul Allen, spending his net billions on start-ups and remaining in the limelight because of his wealth and not his talents.

There are responses to this message:

This page was archived on 6/13/2001; 4:52:34 PM.

© Copyright 1998-2001 UserLand Software, Inc.