[plug] [OTICHO]* IE-only webservers

[Leon Brooks]

Christian wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 17, 2000 at 06:09:10PM -0700, Andrew Furey wrote:
>>> I would not be suprised if microsoft releases web
>>> servers that only IE will work on

>> IMHO it would be the other way, MS would release a
>> version of IE that only works on their web servers.
>> They tried basically the same thing with W2K and
>> Kerberos (IIRC).
>> Remember, their monopoly (for now :) is the desktop,
>> so they would try to leverage that to get the server
>> monopoly.

> I doubt they would do this given the stranglehold Apache has on the web
> server market but the idea is definitely something they might consider.
> Either way, they backed down with Kerberos which is a fairly unimportant
> protocol compared with, say, HTTP so imagine what the outcry would be if
> they did.

I agree that they wouldn't do this outright. Remember, their catch-cry is
"embrace and extend", so what they would do (have done) is make webservers and
browsers that "work better" together, or in other words, have proprietary
_extensions_ to existing protocols, so that each will actually work with
3rd-party products, just "better" with Microsoft products.

DAV was actually a half-hearted attempt at this, neatly torpedoed by the author
of mod_dav (round of applause). C# is a very unsubtle attempt at resurrecting
"Project Cool" AKA corrupting Java. Evidently they've given up the stealth
approach so now appear to be set to work towards their aim brashly. The OSS
answer would be toolsets for migrating _away_ from C# to something like Java or
Python.

* OTICHO == "Off Topic In Christian's Humble Opinion" (-:

-- 
"Happiness is a warm puppy", said the anaconda.