What Microsoft's IE and North Korea Have in Common
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What Microsoft's IE and North Korea Have in Common
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Re: What Microsoft's IE and North Korea Have in Common
#2The author argues that Microsoft should create an open source version of IE so that it's marketing for IE would be more successful.
The commercial goal of the advertising is not to drive IE usage vs Chrome/Firefox on Windows - it's to get people to buy windows machines. They're [re]building the IE brand, dispelling negative perceptions around IE (and Windows, by association) and presenting IE as a superior browser to drive OS/computer purchasing decisions.
None of those goals are served by a cross-platform version - in fact, it would only present a risk if the quality and experience was not similar or better to the native version.
Re: What Microsoft's IE and North Korea Have in Common
#3"Even Apple makes Windows versions of Safari. So, why would Microsoft chose to isolate the primary application delivery mechanism (browser) to only their OS?"
1.) Maybe because it would be pretty hard to port IE to an OS with a pretty different architecture and I'm not even sure what would be the potential gains of doing so.
2.) Safari is based on WebKit so a lot of the cross-platform compatibility bitchwork is already done by the WebKit project, not really Apple.
3.) It appears that Safari for Windows is dying if not already dead.
Re: What Microsoft's IE and North Korea Have in Common
#4"Even Apple makes Windows versions of Safari. So, why would Microsoft chose to isolate the primary application delivery mechanism (browser) to only their OS?" 1.) Maybe because it would be pretty hard to port IE to an OS with a pretty different architecture and I'm not even sure what would be the potential gains of doing so. 2.) Safari is based on WebKit so a lot of the cross-platform compatibility bitchwork is alrea…
1.) Maybe because it would be pretty hard to port IE to an OS with a pretty different architecture and I'm not even sure what would be the potential gains of doing so.
The difficulty of porting the application is not the issue at all. There was a Mac OS X version of Internet Explorer, and it was even the default browser in OS X. Microsoft deprecated it in 2003 shortly after Apple released Safari. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_for_Mac
The potential gains, of course, would be browser market share.
Re: What Microsoft's IE and North Korea Have in Common
#5"Even Apple makes Windows versions of Safari. So, why would Microsoft chose to isolate the primary application delivery mechanism (browser) to only their OS?" 1.) Maybe because it would be pretty hard to port IE to an OS with a pretty different architecture and I'm not even sure what would be the potential gains of doing so. 2.) Safari is based on WebKit so a lot of the cross-platform compatibility bitchwork is alrea…
1.) Maybe because it would be pretty hard to port IE to an OS with a pretty different architecture and I'm not even sure what would be the potential gains of doing so. The difficulty of porting the application is not the issue at all. There was a Mac OS X version of Internet Explorer, and it was even the default browser in OS X. Microsoft deprecated it in 2003 shortly after Apple released Safari. http://en.wikipedia.…
The Mac version of IE was basically a completely different browser. It had its own rendering engine, called Tasman, which was developed separately from Windows IE's rendering engine, Trident.
Re: What Microsoft's IE and North Korea Have in Common
#6The author argues that Microsoft should create an open source version of IE so that it's marketing for IE would be more successful. The commercial goal of the advertising is not to drive IE usage vs Chrome/Firefox on Windows - it's to get people to buy windows machines. They're [re]building the IE brand, dispelling negative perceptions around IE (and Windows, by association) and presenting IE as a superior browser to…
So, how's that going for them?
Didn't the last little video propaganda just note that IE "sucks less" than it used to, and that all people who dislike IE are trolls? Wow, that's really effective. IE propaganda like that surely makes me want to give up my browsing experience and switch to Windows.
Re: What Microsoft's IE and North Korea Have in Common
#7The author argues that Microsoft should create an open source version of IE so that it's marketing for IE would be more successful. The commercial goal of the advertising is not to drive IE usage vs Chrome/Firefox on Windows - it's to get people to buy windows machines. They're [re]building the IE brand, dispelling negative perceptions around IE (and Windows, by association) and presenting IE as a superior browser to…
So, how's that going for them? Didn't the last little video propaganda just note that IE "sucks less" than it used to, and that all people who dislike IE are trolls? Wow, that's really effective. IE propaganda like that surely makes me want to give up my browsing experience and switch to Windows.
Weeeell it's a brand campaign, right, so they'll be measuring it in all sorts of fuzzy terms that provide resistant to boring stuff like "numbers" and "statistics". :P
Don't forget that you are not likely to be the target audience. I'm not a marketing person, but my guess is they're looking to staunch the flow of home users away from windows, and assuring CTO's that the browser won't continue to hold the ecosystem back.
Attracting back Apple users or trying to convince Ubuntu fans to switch to the dark side probably doesn't feature in the plan, for now.
Re: What Microsoft's IE and North Korea Have in Common
#8To my knowledge Apple has discontinued Safari for Windows, so I'd say Microsoft is not alone in tying their browser to their OS.
Re: What Microsoft's IE and North Korea Have in Common
#9Apple has actually stopped updating Safari on Windows months ago: http://www.macrumors.com/2012/07/25/apples-removes-mentions-...
Filed under link bait, IMHO. There are so many better opportunities, even Windows Media Player for Mac would make more sense, if it was everything that people want iTunes to be, and you could use it as a Trojan Horse for Windows Phone sync, online services etc...
Re: What Microsoft's IE and North Korea Have in Common
#10Really? Not going cross-platform makes you North Korea?
Linkbait... Surprised it made to the HN homepage.