6 ms·
Well, given how the DOJ treated MS, it is pretty clear that there was very little it could do in terms of integrating experiences without getting sued. Bundle a
by wcdolphin 14y ago
Well, given how the DOJ treated MS, it is pretty clear that there was very little it could do in terms of integrating experiences without getting sued. Bundle a browser in your OS, get sued. Bundle a media player in your OS? Get sued. But Microsoft is in the middle of a huge culture shift, and it is doing things that are new, bold and targeted, unlike any company in the industry. Google is shooting blanks in every direction, hoping something won't just be a flash in the pan. Apple is cold and consistent, but given their record and how they treat developers, I would be surprised if they don't overplay their hand again.
Amazon, on the other hand, is pretty awesome. Besides being a horrible company to work for, from all reports I have heard, they execute hard, fast and generally pretty well.
- chris_wot 14y agoTightly coupling products does not necessarily lead to greater innovation.
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y agoBut it did lead to better user experience. Imagine buying an iPhone which was unable to play music and videos or surf the web, and if you tried to do those things it would tell you to go and download an app for it. The average user doesn't want to have to download some program to listen to an MP3. They want it to "just work". And that's what Microsoft did.
- chris_wot 14y agoI don't call 2 years between IE5 and IE6, then 5 years between IE6 and IE7 and then 3 years between IE7 and IE8 a "better user experience". Tell me again how tightly coupling the apps made things better?
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y agoFor the average user, an included, well-integrated browser makes surfing the web easier. Even if it's a PITA for web developers like me that they are using an outdated browser.
- greedo 14y agoHow? Most applications will work very well using a non-included browser. Chrome works exceptionally well on my Win7 workstation. How would using the bundled browser be any better? All bundling did was encourage a crappy browser to stay crappy, and infest far too many PCs with malware due to a horrible plugin architecture as well as a lack of security consciousness.
- chris_wot 14y agoExcept it wasn't well integrated. Incompatible DOM events, non-compliant CSS, didn't implement newer standards very quickly, leading to IE only sites, or sites that follow the standard and that just don't work... How dies this making surfing the web easier?
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y agoBecause on a new computer, the average user could just double-click the blue e and they were online, no EU "choose a browser" prompts.
- chris_wot 14y agoAs opposed to the situation whereby hardware vendors prebundled Netscape (with an icon on the desktop) before Microsoft heavied them into only bundling Internet Explorer?
- greedo 14y agoNo, the average user at the time was perfectly content to download an application to play mp3s (WinAmp), surf the web (Netscape), etc. etc. And the notion that Microsoft made it "just work" is revisionist at best.
- btipling 14y agoRight, they could just make innovative products that users would add themselves instead of just adding them in by default.