[Lancaster] [Fwd: Re: Twitter]

[Richard Robinson]

On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 12:46:25AM +0000, Martyn Welch wrote:
> 
> Would we have the internet playing such a large role in the world today 
> without there having been such a dominant player in the computer market? 

Yes.

Until Microsoft (finally) heard the news, providers were coming up with
3rd-party software. Demon, in this country (I don't know the details of
other countries) had been experiencing exponential growth for years by the
time it was possible to access it with anything Microsoft provided.

It was the connectivity that was available, people were selling it, lots of
people wanted it.

> Who knows, who knows if the internet would have even stuck and not 
> fizzled out for the masses when some other new shiny idea came along. I 
> do however believe it would be unwise to dismiss the role Microsoft 
> played, however unwittingly they played it.

I think, the role they played was to drag their feet as long as possible and
then try to make the best of a bad job by claiming it would never have
happened without them. It's also possible that, if they hadn't eventually
come up with support for it, OSs that did would have gained in market share.

The Internet _worked_, years before Microsoft payed it any attention at all.
People wanted it. Microsoft have nothing whatsoever to do with that.

-- 
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem