Re: Guardian Article: The second browser war - we're rocking like it's 1997.

Little will change over the next few years for public websites & 
applications, such as amazon.com, those websites and web-apps need to 
run in IE still for a long time. I think a lot will change for private 
web-apps, I mean enterprises and thousands of small to medium sized 
companies which do not rely on Internet Explorer (controlled 
environments which do not require to run anything from Netscape 4.x 
upwards (Intra nets, Content Editors, etc.) , they will look for 
web-apps which really rock - something like the next Mozilla version, a 
better Java Webstart, IBMs Workplace, Luxor, etc.? It will be based on 
open standards and it will run on any OS. Those web-apps will start 
dominating the "private web", those web-apps will push technology and 
sooner or later they will reach the "public web", that will take some 
time, but if it comes, Microsoft's IE share will dramatically shrink.
I also believe that the web browser will keep its ground, it will be the 
future single plug in (flash or other plugs, respectively their 
abilities, will be part of the web browser), the web browser will remain 
a great tool for viewing documents, the browser back button will still 
be there but beyond that it will allow you to maintain your web 
applications and run them in or outside the web browser.
Private web applications will not rely on IE, not on Avalon and not on 
html 4.01 or any extension to it.
Ah, Microsoft Avalon, well, it probably will be useful for private 
web-apps if you like Microsoft technology that much or in case that 
there is no other choice.

Cheers,

Karl

Gerald Bauer wrote:

>Hello,
>
>  The Guardian Newspaper has published an article by
>Ben Hammersley titled "The second browser war".
>
>   Ben writes:
>
>  One important question remains: why did Microsoft
>stop developing Internet Explorer? Why would a company
>so vocal about innovation cease work on perhaps the
>most used application in the world, and for nearly
>three years? The answer is not definitive, but the
>prevailing thinking points to the third aspect of the
>browser war: it is the beginning of an even larger, if
>deeply curious, battle for the domination of the
>entire computer industry.
>
>   ...
>
> However, what would happen if people's web browsers
>were capable of running complex applications, with
>code based on openly published specifications? Two
>things: first, the operating system would become
>irrelevant, so there would be no need to upgrade to
>the next version of Windows, and second, the playing
>field for everything else would be thus levelled. The
>majority of Microsoft's business, therefore, could
>have been threatened if the IE browser team had
>continued past 2001.
>
>  ...
>
>  Ben concludes:
>
>By wrenching control of the standards for building
>such applications away from Microsoft today, rivals
>hope they can prevent another near decade of Windows
>domination. Microsoft, for its part, is not going to
>go down without a fight.
>
>The browser war may well be seen as nothing but a
>skirmish compared to what is coming.    
>
>
>  Full story @
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1260994,00.html
>
>
>  What's your take? Do you think Internet Explorer's
>market share drop from 95.73% to 94.73% heralds a new
>browser war?
>
>   - Gerald
>
>-------------------
>Gerald Bauer
>
>XUL Alliance | http://xul.sourceforge.net  
>United XAML  | http://xaml.sourceforge.net
>
>Interested in hiring Gerald Bauer? Yes, I'm available.
>
>If you know of an opportunity, please contact me today.
>
>
>-------------------------------------------------------
>This SF.Net email is sponsored by BEA Weblogic Workshop
>FREE Java Enterprise J2EE developer tools!
>Get your free copy of BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 today.
>http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=4721&alloc_id=10040&op=click
>_______________________________________________
>xul-talk mailing list
>[email protected]
>https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xul-talk
>
>.
>
>  
>



-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by BEA Weblogic Workshop
FREE Java Enterprise J2EE developer tools!
Get your free copy of BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 today.
http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=4721&alloc_id=10040&op=click