[LUNI] IE Most Influential Tech Product of Last 25 Years?

[Robert Smith]

First, my intent was to point out how quickly people forget. I wonder how many of those 147 respondents were even around when Mosaic was being developed? Of those that were, did Microsoft's marketing genius and predatory practices cloud their memory?

Yes, Internet Explorer had a major influence on computer use as we know it today, but how much of that is due to product excellence, and how much is due to being able to either outspend the competition or hit below the belt?

Meanwhile, Linux, and Open Source software in general have made major inroads into the computing world in their short lifespan due both to technical excellence, and a solid development philosophy, yet no open source software, OS or otherwise, made it to the top ten in this survey.

Things that make you go Hmm!

If you want to give Gates and the Redmond folks an award, give it to them where they've earned it, savvy marketing panache, and predatory industrial practices.

Gates himself admitted that he almost missed the Internet phenomenon, and if you recall, IE3 wasn't all that sexy an object to behold or work with.

IE owes its existence to Mosaic, just as Win XP owes its existence to the OS2 folks that Gates was able to hire away to Microsoft. Vista? I won't blame that on any predecessor software!

I just felt that the systems that power giants like Google, Pixar Studios, the Home Depot, AutoZone, and a myriad number of other businesses should have received some credit.

But then hey, I'm one of those weirdos who believe that the Open Source movement is one of the most innovative ideas to come out of the past quarter century. Of course, the advertising budget is much smaller, so they certainly can't be very technically influential!

Rob Smith


Samir Faci <sfaci at cs.uic.edu> wrote: Guys, I really think you're looking at this the wrong way.  IE was
VERY influential in the past 25 years.  It's not necessarily a good
product, but the list was about being influential, not quality iirc.
What person owning a computer that isn't a hardcore geek has a PC that
doesn't have IE?  or doesn't associate internet = big blue E on my
desktop

I may be looking at this the wrong way, but MSFT and IE has had a huge
influence on the IT/Computer industry in the last 25 years.  We may
wish they would write better software or crawl in a hole and stop
producing any more vista/whatever.. but they definitely have had an
influence.


my $0.02
--
Samir

On 8/2/07, David Terrell  wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 01, 2007 at 03:03:13PM -0700, Robert Smith wrote:
> > ... Both IE and FireFox (through Netscape Navigator) can trace their parentage back to the browser developed at NCSA.
> >
> >   It sure shows who voted, that Linus's kernel project didn't crack the top ten, yet the iPod made it into the top five. Makes you wonder what CompTIA is using for servers.
>
> I find it interesting that you don't think IE or Netscape/Firefox
> should qualify because they're so derivative of NCSA Mosaic, yet
> you think Linux does.
>
> It makes you wonder....
>
> --
> David Terrell
> dbt at meat.net
> ((meatspace)) http://meat.net/
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