Browser Wars!

So we’ve been tasked by our professor to watch a long (short) video about the true history of internet browsers and how they were surfaced from its company. But before I even begin telling my reactions about the video, I’d like to recall what I’ve watched in the video. It showed me how Netscape appeared as a big step forward to the advancement of technology. The problem is, they did that while Microsoft was the big thing at that time, and Bill Gates being a “second to none” type of person, especially for his company, he offered the creators (Jim Clarke, Marc Andreessen and co.) of Netscape an offer they could not refuse: $1,000,000 for full access of their technology. They left them only two choices: whether to take the offer and make them “control” their own creations, or leave the deal and make Microsoft inevitably copy their own work which they put their sweat and tears in. After those events, Andreessen kind of “insulted” Microsoft’s Windows as being a “bag of poorly debugged set of device drivers”, which motivated Bill Gates to push through the “annihilation” of Netscape by releasing his own web browser: Internet Explorer 4.0. The problem was that, it was free and the computer manufacturers sold their products with the browser already installed along with Windows. But shortly after being triumphant in the browser wars, Bill Gates’ company was launched an antitrust lawsuit by the US Government along with its enemies of Silicon Valley, particularly by Netscape. The final verdict was issued as GUILTY.

Knowing the history of the surfacing of web browsers, it really informed me on how it really started and what really happened before it became a worldwide trend up to now. If it wasn’t for their determination and knowledge of these, what do you think we’re doing right now? I bet we’d be strumming our guitars in our free times or just hanging out with friends. Without the world wide web, do you think we would be able to connect a bond with other countries? That’s what my mind worries about.

I.T. and Me

The world is slowly changing ever since the introduction of computers, mobile phones, the Internet and the like. With these, it has become significantly easier for us to contact other people all over the world. Even though my generation lives in this age of technology, there are still a few who would still prefer the traditional way of sending a message. But this blog post is not just about how “messaging” was made easier. Rather, this post is all about how these “messages” being retrieved, sent or stored throughout all different types of systems could affect my life. Simple tasks for the trend, yet they were powerful enough to affect my daily life activities since I was still a child. Before, I used to load credits for my phone to send long text messages to relatives, friends and other people I know to contact them. Today, we have internet access for social networking sites which can send and receive instant messages to and from people all over the world, sometimes even without loading credits as it only requires internet access. Talk about efficiency. You too might never know how I. T. changed your life until the glorious evolution of technology ends (which it won’t, hopefully, maybe) or if your internet service provider cuts you off by all means necessary (what could you have done to deserve such punishment?). Think about it.