Senate Demands End To Browser Development
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Washington, D.C. (AP, Sept. 2, 2002) - Senate Majority Leader Ray Noorda
(P-Utah) today demanded that the Department of Justice order Microsoft and
Netscape to cease development of new Internet browsers, saying the
ever-escalating battle for Internet dominance had sapped the American
economy of its vitality.

Noorda's comments came only a day after Netscape released Version 407 of
its Navigator browser, which includes the ability to listen to AM radio
from any laptop. Version 407 had just completed its 37-hour beta trial,
while versions 408-441 are in development. (Microsoft, which has been
criticized of late for slipping behind Netscape in the browser race, vowed
to deliver Version 405 of its Internet Explorer before the next major
religious holiday, though company spokesman Jim Manzi declined to specify
which religion the company was referring to.) Mark Gibbs, author of IDG
Books' best-selling Deleting Old Browsers for Dummies, said the continuing
instability in the Internet market has virtually halted development of new
applications. "How can you build to a platform that only lasts 51 days?"
asked Gibbs. "The only apps being developed now are crossword puzzles and
3-D, rotatable crossword applets."

According to research firm International Data Corp., the average PC user
now has 62 browsers installed. That has significantly limited the
usefulness of the desktop machine because each "browser/operating
system/object bucket/API repository" consumes a minimum of 1G bytes of
storage and requires 256M bytes of RAM to operate (somewhat less if the
touch screen option is disabled). Intel Corp. recommends the use of at
least a 757-MHz Decadium processor to support current browsers.

In the late 1990s, it was hoped that the browser model of accessing
information would actually allow for the development of simpler, less-
expensive desktop devices that would rely on applications and data housed
on Internet servers. But the dream of the so-called Internet device died
with the release of Internet Explorer Version 231, which cracked the
800Mbyte storage requirement and supported some 250,000 ActiveX Controls.

(This statement best viewed with Internet Explorer Version 396.)

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