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

David Strom response

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:6/9/2000; 2:02:50 PM
Topic:Re: DaveNet: What The Web Wants
Msg #:17682 (In response to 17681)
Prev/Next:17681 / 17683

Re What the Web Wants, David Strom said:

Dave -- some great ideas here. There is a small flaw in your proposals, though: what you suggest is worse off for the vast majority of consumers who A) don't care what browser they use, just as long as it is already on their hard disks and B) have a hard enough time getting everything configured on their PCs already, without having to go off someplace and download additional software and C) because they have gotten used to doing the same tasks with the browser on both their desktops and over the Internet and don't want to learn two different methods (yes, the browser is part of the Windows OS, for better or worse).

I would love to see more competition in the browser space, just to keep Microsoft on track towards innovating. AOLscape isn't going to do it, for reasons you mentioned. And splitting off BrowserCo is just a bad idea. I wish I had a better one, however.

To which I responded

David, we all will feel pain from whatever happens here. Three possibilities:

1. Microsoft wins on appeal, and continues to grab new markets using dominance in older markets.

2. Microsoft is split along the lines in the Jackson order, which leaves the browser in the same company as Microsoft's web services, and Microsoft continues to grab new markets using dominance in older markets.

3. Something creative is done, to restore competition to the browser market and to be sure that the next generation net-aware apps are not dominated by Microsoft, so they can't grab new markets using dominance in older markets.

We can't set everything right, no matter which choice, everyone feels pain, but long-term, imho, we'll all be better off if there's a competitive browser market.

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