In comp.lang.perl.misc Matt Garrish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Part of their behavior really escape me. The whole thing about browser >> wars confuses me. Web browsers represent a zero billion dollar a year >> market. Why would you risk anything to own it? > It may not be worth loads of money in-and-of itself now (don't forget > Netscape wasn't always free, though), but if you control how people view the > Internet you can make a lot of money in other ways, especially if you build > your browser into your operating system and warp standards so that people > who design sites take advantage of the proprietary features. Eventually the > hope is that your OS and browser will become the only means of accessing the > internet. And if your OS and browser are the only way to access the > Internet, who in their right mind would use another system?
There was a time in the early-mid 1990s that Microsoft was making noises about setting up a 'commercial Internet' through which they hoped to control all online trading (with a percentage of each transaction going to themselves of course). I forget the exact details but it seemed a very real suggestion at the time. Axel -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
