“In the past slippage on new operating systems hasn’t made a
great deal of difference to Microsoft, because there’s been no
competition and the hardware manufacturers have just had to wait,
but it’s different with Itanium, because there’s Linux and a clutch
of Unices poising themselves to jump in.”
“Despite the strenuous efforts not to position IE as an app,
Gates’ pitch did tend to peg it more as part of apps and tools than
as part of the OS. Aside from being a development platform, it has
“specific enhancements designed to provide developers with a more
powerful Web development environment.” It is “the best path forward
for Web developers preparing for .NET as it offers the ability to
develop reusable components for use across the Internet, providing
the first steps toward creating rich services on the Web.”
“This sounds awfully like what Microsoft was worried
Netscape might do to it, back at the start of the browser wars,
doesn’t it? The browser is the platform, it runs on multiple
operating systems, so back in those days Netscape threatened
to erase Microsoft’s advantage of Windows being the “standard”
platform for application development. Sure, Microsoft insists that
IE is just part of the OS these days, but it’s actually part of
several operating systems, and on the Mac doesn’t it look a teensie
bit like an apps?”