Cringely column on IE and Win98 (fwd)

Eek!
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November 18, 1997
PBS Online

I, Cringely
"I think, therefore, I think."
Volume 1.33

Take a billionaire to lunch: The real reasons why Microsoft is so desperate
to fold Internet Explorer into Windows 98

by Robert X. Cringely
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"The check is in the mail."

"Of course I'll still respect you in the morning."

We all know the standard list of lies, but here are two more, straight from
the mouth of Bill Gates this week: 1) "The Department of Justice is trying
to deny product innovations to computer users," and 2) "If the Department
of Justice is successful in keeping Internet Explorer 4 from being bundled
in Windows 98, Microsoft could be put out of business."

Make a list of the product innovations that have ever come from Microsoft.
There is a fantasy in Redmond that Microsoft products are innovative, but
this is based entirely on a peculiar confusion of the words "innovative"
and "successful." Microsoft products are successful -- they make a lot of
money -- but that doesn't make them innovative, or even particularly good.
I do documentary television shows about the history of the computer
business, and it is amazing how Microsoft executives retrospectively will
acknowledge how bad some of their products have been. At the time those
products were introduced, the same executives claimed they were the best in
the world. How can this be? It's this confusion of market success and
product quality, combined with a general lack of respect and concern for
users.

Innovations don't often come from big companies, and when they do, it is
generally as a result of competition. Innovations usually come from little
companies that need to innovate to make a place for themselves in the
market. What comes from big companies, especially big software companies,
are product revisions. We don't ask for the revisions, but they are
nevertheless thrust upon us. Who actually uses any features of Microsoft
Word introduced after, say, version 4? Yet new versions continue to appear
and we upgrade to them -- not because we want ever larger, more bloated
software -- but because we have no choice. Deliberate changes in file
specifications keep upgrading just so we're able to read our own writing
and share files with others. It's a plot, a grand manipulation of millions
of users with the sole purpose of maintaining corporate earnings growth.
They do it for them, not for us.

And it's not just Microsoft. Nearly every software company does the same
thing because it's the best way to generate revenues after the easiest
sales have already been made. There's a sucker born every minute, and more
often than not, he uses a personal computer.

Then there is Lie Number Two: Could the Department of Justice, with its
proposed $1 million-per-day fine and not-all-that-sophisticated
understanding of the way the software business works, really put Microsoft
out of business? Of course not, and Bill Gates knows it.

But emperors are different from you and me. They can be self-centered and
whine about the most petty things, and for some reason we listen to them.
Emperor Bill can share his ludicrous fear that the Department of Justice
will take out Microsoft with anything short of a neutron bomb, and we
listen to him. Some people even sympathize. Poor Bill. Poor Microsoft. But
understand that sympathy is unknown inside the Redmond hallways, that no
competitor there is ever given the benefit of the doubt. Strength is all
that matters at Microsoft -- that is unless a little public sniveling can
regain some advantage. This is theater, theater of the absurd.

None of this would make a bit of difference if the software at the heart of
this dispute -- Windows 98 -- was truly innovative, truly useful or even
truly functional. As it stands at this moment, days or weeks away from
Win98 being frozen and deemed shippable to you and me, the software sucks.
Worse still, it treats us like fools.

Here's what I am hearing about Windows 98 from inside Microsoft's developer
and beta test communities.

It isn't done, for one thing. Not even close. Expect many bugs and many bug
fixes long after the product ships, and probably expect a delay or two
beyond Microsoft's promised second quarter shipping target.

Then there are those innovative features of which the Department of Justice
seems to want to deprive us. Take Win98's Active Desktop, which is worse
than a nuisance. Click on an icon and the next thing you know, your modem
is dialing someone. That's great if you have a dedicated T1 line, but a
real pain if you have a 28K modem. Then there's the new "subscriber"
service: Forget to turn your computer off at night, and at 4am, it will
dial up Redmond and using their new Remote Administration service, scan
your DLLs and replace them at Microsoft's discretion. Good luck trying to
keep Netscape Navigator running under that scenario. Plus, how do we know
what information is being passed back and forth? And with all the Java code
being bounced around, you had better have at least a 56K modem. It's
obvious Microsoft's programmers have T1 Internet connections to their Fast
Ethernet networks. Doesn't everyone?

Install Win98, and the first thing you see after rebooting is the Channels
Bar, with Warner Bros. and Disney logos filling half the screen. How much
dough did Microsoft get for that sort of advertising? It's as if every time
I started my car, the radio played a Shell Oil commercial first.

Using Internet Explorer 4, clicking the search button routes everything
through the Microsoft server first. Talk about demographic manna from
heaven! Microsoft will know everything we do, and everywhere we go on the
Internet.

And then there's WinTrust: Microsoft is laying the groundwork so that all
electronic transactions will go through Redmond. This may be the real
reason Microsoft is pushing IE4 onto the OEMs so hard.

Cybercash, online transactions, Internet advertising. The browser is simply
the front door to these innovative services/profit centers. The only way to
make sure everyone will see those centers is to make sure everyone uses
Microsoft's browser. Netscape has no interest in enabling WinTrust, so
Netscape must die. Microsoft will gladly give away the browser for free
regardless of the presence of Netscape just to be sure they can control the
online gateway. From a business standpoint, this is sheer brilliance. But
to some folks it's Big Brother coming from Washington state instead of DC.

But will Windows 98 run on our current hardware? Not really. Remember how
Windows 95 needed only a 486 and eight megs of RAM? Who runs Win95 today
with anything less than a Pentium and 16 megs? Windows 98 currently
requires 340 megabytes of disk space and a new useful minimum 32 megs of
RAM, with 48 megabytes required to run as well as Windows 95.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

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