Re: Microsoft's Zone

Steven Melamut <melamut[_at_]email.unc.edu> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 24 Oct 1997, James Love <love[_at_]cptech.org> wrote:
> >
> > Declan McCullagh and others point out that Micrsoft's
> > http://www.zone.com/, a site for Internet games, won't work with
> > current versions of Netscape. I used Netscape and received this
> > message.
> >
> > We're sorry. For technical reasons the Zone doesn't yet
> > support Netscape Navigator 3.0 and higher browsers. We're
> > working to add this support, and we apologize for the
> > inconvenience. In the meantime, we invite you to download
> > Microsoft Internet Explorer for free.
> >
> >
> > On the Fight-Censorship list, Jeff Schult, commented: "The Zone was not
> > started by Microsoft, and was not browser dependent until after MS
> > bought it. As a bridge player, I found it irritating to have to have
> > MSIE in order to continue using a site that I had enjoyed for quite a
> > while."
>
> I am taking a class on Local Area Networks. Thursday evening we were
> using a utility provided by the Microsoft NT resource kit to allow us to
> work on a server from remote computers (in this case all in the same
> room, but none the less remote from the server). After the first few
> people used the utility, it stopped working. It apparently only works
> on IE not on Netscape Communicator. It is an interesting marketing
> approach.

I have to believe that it is inadvertant, since this sort of thing, esp. spurious or invented incompatabilities were apparently one of the elements in the DR DOS antitrust suit against MS. The allegation there was that Windows 3.x was putting out spurious error messages about compatability when it discovered that it was sitting on top of DR DOS instead of MS DOS. Of course Win 95 got around this entire problem by bolting DOS to the bottom of Win 95.

It is going to be interesting in view of antitrust pressure on the company how MS reacts over time in the area of compatability, esp. when the lack thereof can be taken as indicia of tying. My personal view is that until they get their fingers burned once or twice, the company is going to push the envelope here as much as they can.

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The preceding was not a legal opinion, and is not my employer's.
Original portions Copyright 1997 Bruce E. Hayden,all rights reserved
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Bruce E. Hayden                      bhayden[_at_]acm.org               
Austin, Texas                        bhayden[_at_]copatlaw.com