NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR VERSUS MICROSOFT EXPLORER
The above title was the search term on Northern Light for articles concerning what was once known as the "browser" wars. That search listed more than 23,000 articles, many of them from 1997 concerning the gradual approaching, tying, and eventual conquering of Netscape Navigator by Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
The term "once known" used above is reflective of a fascinating survey published by NUA Internet Surveys on June 27, 2000 which was headlined "Microsoft Definitive Winners of Browser War" ("Microsoft Definitive" 2000).
The report quoted a survey conducted by WebSideStory's STATMarket Service that showed "A staggering 86.08 percent of Internet users worldwide use Internet Explorer, up from 64.06 percent in February 1999. Netscape's share of the market has plummeted from 33.43 percent in February 1999 to 13.90 percent in June 2000" ("Microsoft Definitive" 2000). Also pointed out by the survey were these figures:
* Only 0.02 percent of users use another browser
* 93.63 percent of Internet users worldwide now use a Windows OS product.
* 2.53 percent of users use Macintosh products while 0.36 percent use Unix.
Curiously, the survey did not mention developers' attitudes toward the two browsers. For if you enter any of the numerous web forums for developers, you will find the overall opinion that neither Explorer nor Navigator is fondly regarded. This paper will explore some of the potential reasons for this disenchantment. To give a clear focus to this discussion, it is essential that the term "developer" be defined.
For convenience' sake, we'll adopt the definition given by the President of Microsoft, Jeffrey Ballmer, who sees developers as
IT professionals who want to build and manage Web-based services at "Internet speed," but need to support large, complex networks and thousands of knowledge workers. They need management tools that help them ...