On the Crapiness of Internet Explorer 1 and 2 |
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At the time Internet Explorer 1 and 2 hit the market, I was the editor of the Windows Magazine CD-ROM. The first few issues were written in Windows Help, which was actually quite a sophisticated publishing system. But it was proprietary, and it did have its limits. Visionary Fred Langa, then editor of Windows Magazine ordered me to remake the CD-ROM so it was written in HTML and could be read by any browser. Well, this meant two things:
Remaking the CD-ROM was hard enough, but finding a web browser was REALLY difficult. This is because Netscape, while distributing the browser free on the web, charged between $5 and $10 per copy (depending on your volume and negotiating skills) if you wanted to distribute it on a CD-ROM. It also charged you to include it on the floppy you sent to new customers if you were an Internet Service Provider. Our CD cost only $10. We couldn't pay $5 a copy for a browser not all our customers needed. Our first savior was Sprynet, which had a really awful, non-standard browser with a crummy install program. It gave me fits for months, as I strove to create HTML that could be read by Netscape (for those who already had it) and SpryNet's browser (for those who were getting their browser off the CD-ROM). Then along came Microsoft's Internet Explorer 1.0 for Windows 95 (their version for Windows 3.0 sucked dead bunnies through a straw; we did distribute it, but only reluctantly). It was a a really awful, non-standard browser with a crummy install program. Version 2.0 wasn't much better. But the price was sure right: free. I became an OEM distributor of Internet Explorer. Not because Microsoft has a superior product (it didn't, as even Bill Gates has now admitted in public), but because they were giving it away while Netscape was selling theirs. And while I don't have the Microsoft contract in hand, I am pretty sure there were some draconian requirements with regard to use and promotion of other browsers. TANSTAFFL. |