In Regard to Marc Andreessen’s “Why Software is Eating the World”(sfard.posterous.com)
sfard.posterous.com
In Regard to Marc Andreessen’s “Why Software is Eating the World”
http://sfard.posterous.com/in-regard-to-marc-andreessens-why-software-is
2 comments
Good point there, would the web be as prevelant today if people had to fork out $50 for a browser separately from the operating system and the computer which they bought?
Maybe other protocols would have been made more popular in that case.
Maybe other protocols would have been made more popular in that case.
If software is a growing industry and other industries are shrinking, it seems it would make the most sense that the unemployed learn to program.
Looking back, it is ironic that Microsoft's monopoly conviction came from their decision to first license Internet Explorer for free (as in beer) then to bundle it with Windows. At the time, it was the death knell to Mr. Andreessen's Netscape as they charged for their browser and Windows had far more platform dominance than they do today.
I think that set an important standard in a lot of people's mind - I mean Microsoft made you pay for everything. The web was the brand new frontier and it was so important to them that they would license the browser for free to compete against Netscape.
The US Government said that was "evil." Looking back, I'm not so sure it was. I do think these old things are a big factor on why we are where we are with respect to the economics of the web.