“Microsoft’s products continue to get cozy. Users wanting
optimal performance from Office 2000 had better be prepared to sign
on with other key Microsoft products, including Internet Explorer
5.0 and, whenever it becomes available, Windows 2000.”
“Anything you would want to do with the advanced features for
Web collaboration is unavailable unless you use Explorer 5.0,” said
Rob Enderle, vice president of the Giga Information Group, in Santa
Clara, Calif. “Now they’ve taken the browser as a part of
everything, and it gets difficult to hold the same level of
browser. They really treat it like it’s part of the operating
system.”