i wasn’t going to bother posting anything about the open letter to netscape on the assumption that there would be enough discussion [sic] to fill volumes of virtual space without my pithy commentary. but, as you can see – i found the open letter to the wsp rebuttal was cogent enough to warrent insertion into to the abb [annontated bookmark bin]:

“Somehow you still believe that the reason for Microsoft’s inability to make IE standards compliant has something to do with a lack of competition. I’ve read their posts in your mailing list. I know better. You do, too.

Standards have had nothing to do with Netscape’s declining market share, and if you can show one statistic that says otherwise, I’d love to see it. The reason for Netscape’s declining share is nothing more than Microsoft’s monopoly control over the browser marketplace. I would venture that half of the “86%” of users who are using IE now have never even seen Netscape’s browser. Remember, in the past two years, more and more people have come on the ‘Net — what’s that percentage? half of the current Internet users? — and the first and only application they use is IE. Even if some have made the effort to switch to Netscape, the fact remains that the integration of the IE browser into the Operating System has played more of a role in the decline in Netscape’s market share than any “standards compliance” issue. To deny that is to take a myopic view of the browser wars.”

“The WSP has taken exactly the wrong attitude. Instead of heaping scorn on Netscape (and, by association, the Mozilla effort), you should be supporting — nay, advocating — the standards compliance that Mozilla and Netscape 6 will bring to the market. You should be advocating for Mozilla’s standards goals that you so quickly took credit for a year and a half ago.

You should be encouraging the work of the many developers who are fighting an uphill battle against a monopolist. You should be encouraging the WSP members who are putting a serious effort into the Netscape and Mozilla product.

The WSP so easily turned its back on Netscape and the Mozilla effort. Do you know what your goals really are?”

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