MS IN THE MAC MARKET
MS IN THE MAC MARKET
Sent: 7/8/96; 11:36:22 AM
From: lmg@webfarm.com (Larry Mills-Gahl)
Dave;
Excellent piece. I agree with most of what you say, but my conclusion is a bit more skeptical (cynical?). MSIE is a very good browser and I give Microsoft great credit for that accomplishment. I am skeptical that, absent a serious high-volume competitor, IE v4 will begin to look like Word. Early versions of Word were Mac programs and now that they have virtually all of the market, Word 6 for the Mac is Word 6 for Windows running in emmulation. Word on my NT box screams, Word for Mac sucks. I agree that Office is 'boring', but when IE is ubiquitous, will the Mac be stuck with a pathetic Windows port?
To say that Microsoft is making excellent Mac software would indicate that there is more than one piece of quality Mac software comming from MS. I agree with you on IE, but what about FoxPro (a years late Windows port), VB, OLE, Access,... If you are deriding Netscape for being late to market with Mac versions, then to be fair, the same holds true for Microsoft in almost all of its' projects and while Netscape is working on cross platform products (including Unix versions), Microsoft has Windows code and ports (with the posible exception of IE) and not even a pretense of supporting Unix.
You say that " Java plays a key role in all that we do." Why do I get the feeling that ActiveX is more of a Trojan Horse meant to stunt Java through announcements, and corner web developers into the MS world.If VB has never made it to the Mac or Unix, what makes you think that ActiveX will? The network version of OLE was already being written of as a standard when it was not released and the existing technology like COBRA is compared to what Network OLE will be...but not for everyone
Boy...this turned into more of a rant than I intended...sorry. I just see no evidence that Microsoft makes excellent Mac software and, assuming that there is evidence that I do not see, I have little confidence that the quality will be sustained. All ranting aside, I would love to be proved wrong. History is feeding my cynicism.
Internet Explorer for the Macintosh is excellent software....period.
Thanks for listening,
Larry Mills-Gahl
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