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T A B L E__T A L K

Netscape's source code is out. Now what? Discuss the future of the browser wars in Table Talk's Digital Culture area

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R E C E N T L Y

Let my software go!
By Andrew Leonard
Netscape was desperate for a new strategy against Microsoft. Eric Raymond had one
(04/14/98)

Consider the source
By Laura Lemay
Why Netscape's program code causes geeks to swoon
(04/13/98)

Apple and the snake
By Scott Rosenberg
Gil Amelio's peevish corporate memoir paints Steve Jobs as the devil
(04/10/98)

The Quicken and the deadbeat
By Andrew Leonard
How Intuit and Microsoft are saving us all from bankruptcy and crushing personal debt. Or not
(04/09/98)

Dear author
By Pamela LiCalzi O'Connell
What happens when a novelist puts his e-mail address on the book jacket?
(04/08/98)

BROWSE THE ARCHIVES FOR LET'S GET THIS STRAIGHT

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Innovation," Microsoft's ad declares, "results from a spirited competitive environment in which one company's good ideas spark more great ideas in other companies." But what about when one company's good ideas instead just spark Microsoft to buy it? Last week Microsoft went on with its merry business of buying up other innovators. Its latest acquisition, Firefly, is a once-high-flying Internet startup that specializes in intelligent agent technology. Microsoft, however, apparently bought it for its work in the area of online privacy "protection."

When the New York Times Magazine profiled the company last year, one of its founders, Max Metral, described how small, innovative software companies think about Microsoft: "All we can do is meet with them and try to see what they're going to do to us when they feel like doing it."

Do we still have a "spirited competitive environment" when the market trembles at Microsoft's every pinky-quiver -- or when the competition is not for customers' minds and pocketbooks but rather for the interest of Microsoft's acquisitions department? And after Microsoft is done with its acquisitions and establishes new de facto standards by picking new technologies, how much consumer choice remains?

These are the sorts of questions any good, heated debate of Microsoft's place in the software industry demands. Don't look for them in the articles and letters to the editor envisioned in the other prong of Microsoft's PR offensive last week, though. In addition to the paid advertorials, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that Microsoft was planning a "stealth blitz" to generate favorable coverage of the company -- including material "commissioned by Microsoft's top media handlers but presented by local firms as spontaneous testimonials."

Is this an innovation in the creative purchasing of good publicity, or just an old idea from the corporate PR arsenal? The concept of "Astroturf" lobbying -- political pressure campaigns that appear to be organized at the grass-roots level but are really paid for out of industry coffers -- is nothing new. In any case, the plan (which targets those states where state-level antitrust actions are moving forward) is just a proposal rather than a settled course of action, according to Microsoft spokespeople. Maybe so; but even by floating such an idea, Microsoft has screwed up: From now on, even the spontaneous positive coverage it receives may look a little suspect.

Why would a smart company do such a dumb thing? Usually Microsoft's gaffes are attributed to its legendary arrogance, but in this case there may be something else at work. In other Microsoft news last week, the company announced it would voluntarily alter a variety of content-distribution contracts that had become points of contention with the antitrust investigations. Meanwhile, the cover of the latest Business Week asks, "What to Do About Microsoft: Leave It Alone, Regulate It, or Break it Up?"

One of Microsoft's current ad campaigns for its business software is built around the phrase "Digital Nervous System." More and more, Microsoft is looking like one nervous digital system itself.
SALON | April 15, 1998

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R E L A T E D++S A L O N++S T O R I E S
All Gates, all the time: From the Web to Capitol Hill, there's no escaping Bill. By Scott Rosenberg

They know what's best for you: Microsoft's troubles in court epitomize the computer industry's arrogant attitude toward customers. By Scott Rosenberg

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T A B L E++T A L K
Come to Table Talk's Digital Culture discussion area and post your views on the ongoing saga of Microsoft vs. Uncle Sam.

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E-mail Scott Rosenberg.