RIP Cessna...Skycatcher

"Matt W. Barrow" wrote in message
...

Maybe you could verify something for me: I've heard for some time that,
though MS is quick to prosecute piracy and reverse engineering MS stuff,
they expend copious amounts of money reverse engineering competitors
products.

True or trash?

Well, my only experience to that end was with Netscape Communicator/Internet
Explorer, but, once you catch a thief you might as well always assume
they're thieves, especially when their other products look so much like,
say, Lotus 1-2-3 (Excel) or Word Perfect (Word.)
I would say that's very accurate.

Microsoft didn't invent the word processor, spreadsheet, e-mail application
or web browser, but they sure sell a lot. I know people who work for
companies under the Microsoft-owned umbrella who don't reverse-engineer
code, but it clearly happens.

-c

Gatt wrote:
"Matt W. Barrow" wrote in message
...

Maybe you could verify something for me: I've heard for some time that,
though MS is quick to prosecute piracy and reverse engineering MS stuff,
they expend copious amounts of money reverse engineering competitors
products.

True or trash?

Well, my only experience to that end was with Netscape Communicator/Internet
Explorer, but, once you catch a thief you might as well always assume
they're thieves, especially when their other products look so much like,
say, Lotus 1-2-3 (Excel) or Word Perfect (Word.)
I would say that's very accurate.

I heard a wonderful story a few years ago.

Microsoft found some IBM technology that
appeared to infringe on a Microsoft patent.
The Microsoft lawyers called the IBM lawyers
and arranged a meeting. The Microsoft
lawyers handed the IBM lawyers the patent
in question and in return, the IBM lawyers
reached under the table, picked up a banker's
box filled with patents and gave it to the
Microsoft lawyers...

Matt W. Barrow writes:

Maybe you could verify something for me: I've heard for some time that,
though MS is quick to prosecute piracy and reverse engineering MS stuff,
they expend copious amounts of money reverse engineering competitors
products.

True or trash?

False. They are also extremely careful about avoiding piracy of software
themselves.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Matt W. Barrow writes:

Maybe you could verify something for me: I've heard for some time
that, though MS is quick to prosecute piracy and reverse engineering
MS stuff, they expend copious amounts of money reverse engineering
competitors products.

True or trash?

False. They are also extremely careful about avoiding piracy of
software themselves.




Idiot


Bertie

Gatt writes:

I was a contractor at Netscape when IE4.0 came out. Basically, it looked
just like somebody stole the internal alpha copy of Netscape Communicator.

You may be thinking of an earlier version. The earlier versions of IE were
very inferior to Netscape, but IE4 was better. Netscape continued to goof
off, and Microsoft steamrollered them. Netscape will go down in history as
one of the worst-managed companies that ever existed.

In Netscape's case, the competition didn't "improve."

Yes, it did. Netscape had an early success because it had no competition, and
a later failure when it finally did have competition. Netscape made just
about every mistake one could imagine. They could have had it all, but they
settled for nothing.

They stole proprietary code ...

Ever heard of NCSA Mosaic?

... and used massive personnel resources to get it to market before the
smaller company.

No, they just wrote a better browser. Netscape was so busy patting itself on
the back that it didn't notice, and it never even tried to catch up.

Mxsmanic wrote in
news
Gatt writes:

I was a contractor at Netscape when IE4.0 came out. Basically, it
looked just like somebody stole the internal alpha copy of Netscape
Communicator.

You may be thinking of an earlier version. The earlier versions of IE
were very inferior to Netscape, but IE4 was better. Netscape
continued to goof off, and Microsoft steamrollered them. Netscape
will go down in history as one of the worst-managed companies that
ever existed.

In Netscape's case, the competition didn't "improve."

Yes, it did. Netscape had an early success because it had no
competition, and a later failure when it finally did have competition.
Netscape made just about every mistake one could imagine. They could
have had it all, but they settled for nothing.

They stole proprietary code ...

Ever heard of NCSA Mosaic?

... and used massive personnel resources to get it to market before
the smaller company.

No, they just wrote a better browser. Netscape was so busy patting
itself on the back that it didn't notice, and it never even tried to
catch up.


You're an idiot.


Bertie

Mxsmanic wrote in

They stole proprietary code ...

Ever heard of NCSA Mosaic?

I worked in the same building as Marc Andreeson. At Netscape. Ever heard
of him?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:M...laque_ncsa.jpg

Are you suggesting he stole his own code? Do you have any idea WTF you're
talking about?

... and used massive personnel resources to get it to market before
the smaller company.

No, they just wrote a better browser.

No, you really don't know what you're talking about. I had friends working
at Microsoft while I was working at Netscape.

Netscape was so busy patting itself on the back that it didn't notice,
and it never even tried to catch up.

To reiterate, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, and
once again you're talking to somebody who does.

-c