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  • From: Steven Champeon <schampeo AT hesketh.com>
  • To: InterNetWorkers <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: more subjective history question
  • Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 17:44:05 -0500


on Fri, Jan 19, 2001 at 05:36:40PM -0500, Thomas A. Beckett wrote:
> So I guess the next question I have is, did Netscape fail in its
> confrontation with MS because Apache undercut them in the server market,
> which is where they were actually making money (as opposed to the
> browsers they gave away for free)?

No - Apache wasn't the first free server, NCSA was. I'm sure it played
a role, but Netscape's server products are still better than Apache for
certain environments. They're multithreaded, and they're supported.
Apache and NCSA were/are great for people who know how to compile a
server, but not real good for someone who doesn't - like most Windows
admins. And remember, Microsoft's first Web server was EMWACS - a
tired, underpowered piece of crap that used to leak 40K every time
you fed it a POST request. Bleah.

> Obviously there were a number of factors at work there, the M$
> monopoly
> on the OS chief among them. But it strikes me that Netscape's
> technology was superior for much of that battle, and Microsoft only
> caught up in both browser and server /after/ Netscape stumbled.

Read this:

http://www.unionrecord.com/biz/display.php?ID=1785

I don't agree entirely, but he makes an interesting - if not
rock-solid - case for the idea that Microsoft destroyed everyone's
chances of making a dime on the Internet by giving away the browser.
Not just Netscape. I think the author forgets that Netscape gave away
the browser first, then revised their plan to mean "free for
educational and non-commercial use". I remember the uproar about that.
But anyway. I dunno, just throwing gas on the fire.

S

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