Groups > alt.comp.software.firefox > #12991

Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox

From	VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH>
Newsgroups	alt.comp.software.firefox
Subject	Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox
Date	2025-04-07 22:54 -0500
Organization	Usenet Elder
Message-ID	<1vmmvv6rnqnic.dlg@v.nguard.lh> (permalink)
References	(3 earlier) <vt0f9e$3napu$1@dont-email.me> <vt1a8b$i6ag$1@dont-email.me> <vt1g2j$n6ii$1@dont-email.me> <z6cqtx72e14w$.dlg@v.nguard.lh> <vt21ca$15nn0$1@dont-email.me>

Show all headers | View raw

Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> wrote:

> IE was integrated in Win98. 

First available in the Windows 95 Plus Pack.  I got so many perks when
hired back then, even if just moving between different departments
within the same company (I'd ask, and usually I'd get) that I got many
versions of Windows and support tools for free.  Hell, you could attend
Microsoft seminars where they doled out free copies of Windows and
support tools, and their other products.  In fact, for one seminar, you
got for free a portfolio full of CDs with free licenses for ALL of
Microsoft's software products.  The employers paid for attendence at the
seminars, and the attendents got perks at no cost to them free.  It was
like giving candy to us techies.  So, I don't remember there was a cost
to the Plus Pack.  If there was, I never had to pay.

> That was Active Desktop.

ActiveX is an adapter/extension to COM and OLE.  Javabeans supported
more platforms, but ActiveX supported more programming languages.  It
was a means of bolstering the feature set of the web browser (not of the
desktop).  Besides Internet Explorer, AX was also used in MS Visual
Studio, MS Office, and Windows Media Player.  The same libraries
available to IE were available to other programs.  However, most webbies
saw AX controls embedded in web pages.  AX was OLE rebranded.  

Later I saw HTAs (HTML Applications) show up that used IE's libraries to
create UIs with logic behind them.  Web devs, and those who hired them,
wanted more than dumb static web documents.  They wanted them to be
interactive, and do input validation.  HTAs provided the features of
HTML to design a UI, and scripting to make the doc an application, and
that was either inside or outside of IE 5 (when HTAs became possible).

Active Desktop was about adding HTML to the OS desktop.  It allowed
adding web content to the desktop that could get updated.  AD was a
feature of IE 4, but as a separate and optional update.  It turned the
desktop into a web client.  The HTML content did not have to be rendered
within a web browser.  I don't recall seeing anyone use it, but my
experience was within a technical community, and not in one where users
want to prettify their desktop with weather, news overview, watching
stocks, constantly updated web docs, or other distracting drivel.  AD
content was visile without having to open the web browser (IE).

> That was the famous cutting off Netscape's air supply. 

Netscape, and even Mozilla today, suffered featuritis: putting more
priority on adding features than solidifying the web browser.

Netscape forked from Spyglass Mosaic which came from NCSA Mosaic.
Internet Explorer forked from Spyglass which came from Mosaic.  Each
boostrapped onto the same prior work.

> I remember once reading an article at Wired. The author was at MS for
> a meeting where that strategy was explained. Very dramatic. Such
> animals.

It was called the Browser Wars back then.  IE came out in 1995 in the MS
Plus! pack for Windows 95.  IE was always free (negating the cost to get
Windows).  Netscape Navigator (also negating the cost of Windows) was
not free until January 1998.  Think about it: for 3 years, or more, you
could buy Netscape, or you could use IE for free.  That lag severely
impaired acceptance by users, and they were forced to go open source in
1998 with the Mozilla project.  Hard to catch up with a snowball that
has been rollowing over 3 years to accumulate users.  You cannot compete
with a payware product against a free one unless your product is FAR
superior.  Not the case back then.

You can work hard to produce a superior product.  Or you can work hard
to harm your competitors.  Or you can do both.  As companies grow,
becomes more difficult to take the high road, and the more momentum to
overcome on bad or suspect decisions.  When survival is at stake, or
punishment is absent, humans lose their moral compass.

We have limited food and water, so we should apportion properly for
longest survival.  Oh wait, BANG.  Okay, more for the rest of us.

As a matter of cosmic history, it has always been easier to destroy than
to create. (Spock, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan).

Thread

Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-05 21:41 -0500
  Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Frank Miller <miller@posteo.ee> - 2025-04-06 05:20 +0200
    Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-06 04:32 -0500
      Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-06 04:36 -0500
  Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox John Diamond <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-04-06 04:24 +0100
    Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox occam <occam@nowhere.nix> - 2025-04-07 11:59 +0200
  Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-04-06 09:44 -0400
    Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-06 17:48 -0500
      Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-04-07 08:10 -0400
        Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-07 13:32 -0500
          Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-04-07 15:31 -0400
            Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-07 19:01 -0500
        Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Jeff Barnett <jbb@notatt.com> - 2025-04-07 13:49 -0600
          Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox (PS) Jeff Barnett <jbb@notatt.com> - 2025-04-07 13:52 -0600
          Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-04-07 17:29 -0400
            Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-07 19:57 -0500
              Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-04-07 22:25 -0400
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-07 22:54 -0500
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-08 06:58 +0100
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-04-08 08:37 -0400
            Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-08 06:55 +0100
              Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-04-08 08:47 -0400
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox fredl@invalid.com - 2025-04-08 14:50 -0500
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Schugo <schugo@schugo.de> - 2025-04-08 22:18 +0200
                Harder to keep loving Firefox News <dnews@triffid.co.uk> - 2025-04-09 10:20 +0100
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Schugo <schugo@schugo.de> - 2025-04-09 20:50 +0200
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-04-09 17:06 -0400
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-04-08 17:19 -0400
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Frank Miller <miller@posteo.ee> - 2025-04-08 23:55 +0200
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-04-08 20:12 -0400
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> - 2025-04-09 15:10 +0000
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-09 16:27 +0100
      Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Schugo <schugo@schugo.de> - 2025-04-07 19:27 +0200
      Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> - 2025-04-11 11:50 -0700
        Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-11 16:45 -0500
          Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> - 2025-04-13 09:29 -0700
            Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Mark Lloyd <not.email@all.invalid> - 2025-04-13 17:15 +0000
              Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> - 2025-04-13 12:36 -0700
              Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-13 16:54 -0500
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Nobody <jock@soccer.com> - 2025-04-13 16:05 -0700
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Winston <wbe@UBEBLOCK.psr.com.invalid> - 2025-04-14 03:11 -0400
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-14 06:21 -0500
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> - 2025-04-16 08:03 -0700
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Nobody <jock@soccer.com> - 2025-04-16 08:17 -0700
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> - 2025-04-16 08:49 -0700
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox John <Man@the.keyboard> - 2025-04-16 16:43 +0100
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> - 2025-04-17 09:59 -0700
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Mark Lloyd <not.email@all.invalid> - 2025-04-16 16:40 +0000
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-16 14:22 -0500
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Schugo <schugo@schugo.de> - 2025-04-16 21:42 +0200
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-16 19:33 -0500
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> - 2025-04-16 07:59 -0700
              Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Char Jackson <none@none.invalid> - 2025-04-13 23:46 -0500
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> - 2025-04-13 23:22 -0700
                Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Dave Royal <dave@dave123royal.com> - 2025-04-14 08:07 +0100
              Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> - 2025-04-14 17:40 +0000
    Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-09 02:17 -0500
  Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Dave Royal <dave@dave123royal.com> - 2025-04-07 08:36 +0100
    Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-07 05:52 -0500
      Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox Dave Royal <dave@dave123royal.com> - 2025-04-07 13:05 +0100
        Re: Harder to keep loving Firefox VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-07 13:54 -0500

csiph-web