p2p news / p2pnet: "We waited too long for a browser release."

So says Gates on the delays between major releases of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the last coming in 2001 with IE 6.

But Microsoft has now, "released several product updates, including a ‘refresh’ of the Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2, and Microsoft’s Atlas AJAX Web development kit will have an updated licence allowing customers to run Web applications built with Atlas," says ZDNet News.

"The term AJAX was coined last year to describe a combination of Web technologies, including JavaScript and XML. More and more developers are using these tools to build more capable Web applications that can replace older generations of desktop systems."

Meanwhile, while Gates dawdled, Mozilla’s Firefox has, "chipped away at IE’s market share with newer features and security improvements," says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

His admission of tardiness came at a Microsoft glitz-blitz when he and a, "bevy of executives presented the software and their vision for tomorrow’s Web at an unusual event called Mix06, aimed primarily at the people who design, build and run the world’s top 500 commercial Web sites," says the Seattle Times.

“The conference, Mix 06, is the latest step in Microsoft’s effort to expand its role beyond traditional PC software and onto the Web,” says the Post-Intelligencer. “In addition to offering computer-server and database software for running Web sites, the company is coming out with new sets of tools for Web development and design.”

But the story says the Microsoft marketing fest, "also reflected tension in the industry over Microsoft’s online plans," and has Anil Dash, an executive with blogging software company Six Apart, asking Gates, "What are you doing to help business models for those of us who both compete and collaborate with you - or do you not feel that’s your responsibility?"

The 50-billionaire acknowledged, "for many companies, there will be ’some overlap with what we do. If you compete with the things we do, more power to you."

The "uneasiness" dates to its tactics in pushing the free Internet Explorer browser in the 1990s, one of the key developments leading to the US government’s antitrust case against the company, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer emphasises, continuing:

"On Monday, interviewing Gates on stage, tech publisher Tim O’Reilly referred to that battle in contrasting current Microsoft rivals Google and Apple with Netscape. Although Google and Apple appear to be in unique positions, O’Reilly said, Microsoft has a history of ‘knocking other people out of the ring’."

But,"There’s a lot of these so-called fights where the other guy really knocked himself out," Gates responded, "to a mix of laughter and applause".

Also See:
ZDNet News - Gates admits IE failings, looks to an AJAX future, March 21, 2006
Seattle Post-Intelligencer - Microsoft woos Web developers, March 21, 2006
Seattle Times - Microsoft wraps itself in vision of future Web, March 21, 2006

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 21st, 2006 at 8:01 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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