> Somewhere around this point, people began spewing mindless drivel about how browsers would somehow magically replace operating systems eventually, and how in

> Somewhere around this point, people began spewing mindless drivel about how browsers would somehow magically replace operating systems eventually, and how in the future all applications would be "web based". This, of course, got Microsoft's attention. "[Netscape will soon reduce Windows to] a poorly debugged set of device drivers." -- Marc Andreesen, then CEO of Netscape Microsoft was right to worry. The browser is the only app most people use on the laptop today. What should they have done? I'm asking this not as a rhetorical question, to justify their behaviour, but because I think it's interesting, and they still haven't answered it.