Tear down that wall, Mr Ballmer
Here’s the question …. with the free browser engines out there that are clearly superior to Internet Explorer, why does Microsoft spend a small fortune to continue to develop their clearly inferior competing product, Internet Explorer?
It’s obvious that they are not interested in really fixing or improving Internet Explorer. At least not to the point where it is competitive with Opera, Safari, Firefox or Google Chrome. So why spend money just to make it a dog by comparison?
Why not follow Apple and Google’s leads and use Webkit as your core engine? Rebrand it, and maybe cobble on some additional functionality. Most MS users wouldn’t know, wouldn’t care, or who knows, might even be appreciative. No brainer, right?
This would do three things:
- Result in a superior product, which translates into an improved user experience. *sniff*
- Save a boatload of development money.
- Help advance the web, by promoting standards and new technologies.
So again, why? Well, the problem is #3. Microsoft does not really want to advance the web, and Internet Explorer is their weapon of choice in that battle. They of course can’t say that, so they do the doublespeak thing.
It’s highly likely that Internet Explorer is a failed attempt of the classic Microsoft tactic of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish, which had served them well in the past. It didn’t work this time and instead of Microsoft being able to write their own rules, we have this mix of implementations that is holding back the inevitable.
The web is a threat to their core business — the joined at the hip cash cows of the Windows operating system monopoly, and the Microsoft Office monopoly. While they certainly have other revenue streams, they also have competition in those areas, and don’t have the freedom that the twin monopolies give them. Or the profit margins.
Now they can’t ignore the web completely. That’s suicide. They tried that back in the early 90’s. They eventually licensed software that included the BSD (Unix) TCP/IP networking stack (see Microsoft, TCP/IP, Open Source, and Licensing) so they could ”talk” internet talk, and “walk” the internet walk. And they rebranded the Mosaic browser (the same engine used by Netscape) as guess what? Yep. This got them in the game, and allowed them quickly to make up for the past sins of ignoring what everybody else except Microsoft was embracing: the Internet.
The Internet was a threat then, just as it is now. Free and open access to information does not put money in the Microsoft bank accounts. Desktops and Office suites do. While the Internet has the potential to make buggy whips out of both.
So now they profit from a confused, fragmented and inferior Internet landscape. Their customers are dependent on their products to travel the Internet. That master/slave type dependency is critical to preserving their business model and the twin cash cows. So their profit becomes our loss.
Now for those of us that see the web as leading to a better world, and Internet Explorer as one of the barriers, we say … “Mr Ballmer, tear down that steenkin’ wall NOW, and kill that misbegotten *BLEEP*, please!”
You might have a billion or two less in the bank, but we’ll all be better off for it. Even you.
@author Hal
January 21st, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Perhaps now that so much of i.e. weakness has been exposed with the China attacks the consumer will be wiser. The German Government has asked everyone in their country to not use I.E. If our country weren’t corporate owned it would do the same.