All Things Microsoft > Microsoft as a Company
Damned if they do and damned when they don't
worker201:
--- Quote from: Calum on 15 June 2009, 17:04 ---
--- Quote ---If Microsoft deserves to be sued, it's for its exclusive OEM distribution deals that punish sales partners for shipping computers that don't have Vista installed. That's exclusionary and monopolistic, and it doesn't do a goddamm thing to advance the technological art.
--- End quote ---
Substitute "Vista" for "Internet Explorer" in that quote, and think back ten or fifteen years. perhaps this isn't as relevant now as it was back in the day, but that's the reason historically. MS had no interest in making compliant web browsers, or advancing open standards, in fact they wanted to completely crush any organisation who had those aims, because they perceived them as a threat.
--- End quote ---
Like I said, I'm not planning on reading case files or anything like that. I recall that Microsoft at first was handing out free copies of cds, just like Netscape was. When they started pre-installing it with the OS, that was, in my memory, never at the exclusion of other browsers. OEMs had a lot more control back then. At least that's the way I remember it.
I also recall that I switched to IE from Netscape around version 5. I was taking an XML class, and IE had XML support that was light years beyond Netscape. It wasn't until the beginning of the Mozilla project (after the release of the Netscape codebase) that the tables started to turn. IE has been playing catchup ever since.
Lead Head:
IE is disgustingly far behind any other modern browser. What is pitiful is that MS is still encouraging poor standards-violating web coding. IE8 actually has two modes, compatibility and standards-compliant mode. Computability mode is enabled by default, and it causes IE8 to behave like the previous versions of IE. Even the standards compliant mode still has pretty poor support for many web standards. I just find it amazing that they seem to favor poor coding just to make some older websites work, rather then standards compliant to help unify the web.
worker201:
Well, if their goal was to unify the web, then they would focus on standards compliance. But that has never been their goal. And no matter what they tell you, that's not the goal of anyone else who has a product to sell. Microsoft's goal regarding the internet has always been "If we can control it, we will rake in the money". From their business interests, Microsoft-controlled standards are the best kind of standards, because W3C standards don't open pathways for Microsoft to make money. In the web, as in all markets, Microsoft's goal was to pervert industry standards to their own liking, and then force those standards on their huge user base.
So in a way, IE has been standards compliant for its entire lifespan. It's just a question of "which standards?"
Calum:
--- Quote ---Like I said, I'm not planning on reading case files or anything like that.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---When they started pre-installing it with the OS, that was, in my memory, never at the exclusion of other browsers. OEMs had a lot more control back then. At least that's the way I remember it.
--- End quote ---
worker, you remember wrong.
but since you plan to pour your opinions into this thread while actively avoiding any real history, then what's the point in replying to you?
worker201:
--- Quote from: Calum on 16 June 2009, 10:15 ---but since you plan to pour your opinions into this thread while actively avoiding any real history, then what's the point in replying to you?
--- End quote ---
I feel kinda special that I got a reply, even though I'm apparently not worth replying to.
WTF, man? I thought I made it pretty clear that the information presented in these posts would be opinions and interpretations, not facts. If you wish to correct my opinions and interpretations by presenting facts, feel free to do so. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, and I'm man enough to admit it. But don't threaten to correct me and then withhold your corrections as some kind of punishment.
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