Re: The Netscape / Microsoft / Future Quagmire

On Fri, 18 Oct 1996, Scott E. Preece wrote:

> It's a constant reminder that your choice has limited your access to
> some provider's data.  At some point the weight of those reminders may
> convince you to change or may convince you to beat your vendor browser
> into supporting the same features as the heavies.

Rather it's a constant reminder that my income has limited my access to 
some provider's data.  Only recently have I been able to afford a box 
capable of running the newest Nestcape.  Previous to that I ran Lynx at 
home, and at work ran Netscape on BSDI(unsupported platofrm anyways).

> I don't think browsers are or should be mundane - I'm inclined to think
> they should become our primary user interfaces, with a little more
> evolution.

(written with a smile)
The moment a web browser becomes your primary user interface is the 
moment you get no work done and spend more time upgrading your UI than 
using it.  Web browsers suck as applications go, and I sure don't want 
them as my primary interface.  Yah I want my friggin primary interface to 
hang for minutes cause it's resolver functions suck, and I love little 
animations while I try to do work.  Even more so I want my primary 
interface to hog up 70% of the memory on my computer, leak mem like 
liza's bucket, be created by a hegelian process of market driven 
development leaving us with a billion incompatabilities an nothing that 
actually works as hyped.

> The Web is a major step forward in platform-independent integration of
> data and process.  It's not mature, yet, and some of its infrastructure
> may change radically over the next few years to improve efficiency and
> capability, but the directions are good.  Toward that end it's important
> that users keep upgrading so that there's a sufficient base to drive
> content providers and infrastructure developers to keep the maturation
> process going.

It's important that user's keep upgrading so they can never get any work 
done, all projects get pushed back until the next release of UA "X", and 
MOST IMPORTANTLY to drive the companies who get their hands into this 
market and keep their pockets overflowing with money as users become 
entrenched in this entire death spiral up towards the elusive and never 
to come UBERBROWSER!

School's don't have that kinda budget, neither do libraries.  Then there 
are people without incomes driven by this industry or access to kickarse 
workstations in the office.  I wanna make sure they aren't cut out of 
this equation.  It's hard enough for alot of people to afford computers, 
let alone the arms race required to keep up with designers fascinated 
with geegaws and Shockwave and bullshit which don't provide any 
information but ensure that Company Y feels like their "ahead of the 
technology curve" and makes their share holders happy.

> Something else I expect, by the way, is browsers that maintain their
> currency automatically by fetching new components from their vendor's
> server as needed; this requires a shift to a much more modular
> architecture for browsers (to keep upgrade downloading cheap and fast),
> but I think it's sure to turn up in a year or so.

Amazing, isn't this what the new rewrites of Mosaic are doing?


Craig Brozefsky				cosmo@ebs.net
System Administrator			vox: 312-226-1675
EBS.NET					http://www.ebs.net
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Received on Friday, 18 October 1996 13:31:55 UTC