How the Web Was Won: The Inside Story of How Bill Gates and His Band of Internet Idealists Trans- Formed a Software Empire

Rating:
Summary: Overall good, changed my perception of Microsoft
Review: Despite falling asleep several times while working my way through this book, I trudged on in the hope that I'd find some replicable "secret" to success. Unfortunately, I didn't find it. All I found was an interesting chronology of Microsoft's efforts to "win the browser war". If you're a "what went on behind the scene" junkie, you might enjoy this book. If you're involved in the software industry, you probably should read this book even though you may not learn a whole lot. For just about everyone else, there's not too much of interest here.

FYI, it took me a while to break the code, but the title of this book translates into "Don't sue us because, even though we're a bunch of smart and driven guys, we face a lot of competition and could be driven out of business at any time". I didn't believe that about Microsoft before I read this book, and I still don't buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Scratch a free-marketeer and you’ll find a socialist
Review: I am writing this after the appeals court has done the smart thing and voided the breakup remedy and exposed Judge Jackson for the little punk he is (His bias was obvious during the trial, despite MS's missteps. Congress should impeach him pronto). So I have perspective many of the other reviewers don't.

All I can say is: Ah-hah. Ah-hah. The appeals court may have found that MS maintained its monopoly illegally, largely because it didn't provide sufficient evidence that it needed those contracts with PC makers to protect the proprietary elements of Windows. And they may be right (although I think the general rapacity of the software industry is enough). But it agreed with nothing else, and I think the author of this book has been more than vindicated against his critics.

Yes, he had access to top MS officials, and probably shares their views of things. But you don't need that to agree that Netscape did everything all wrong ... they walked out of the HTML 3 standards conference, made their browser as incompatible with IE as they could just because they were so afraid. Their entire business plan could be summed up as "Bill Gates must be incredibly dumb and tone-deaf, so we'll make all the noise we want about how we can make them irrelevant and they won't notice until it's too late. Oh, and if this somehow doesn't work, let's get the Justice Department to sue them."

Well, it tells you a lot about this strategy (as if you couldn't guess) that Netscape today is just another cog in the AOL Time Warner media machine. The author is particularly good at noting what has not been much noticed elsewhere ... how Netscape, especially in the infamous 1995 meeting, seemed to be working hand-in-glove with Justice to create the appearance of improper competition on Microsoft's part (Funny how, when Larry Ellison (and Bill Gates' biggest service to America is keeping that guy from taking his place, believe me) pays people to sniff through DC trash to find connections between MS and DC lobbying groups, the news is more about the latter aspect of the story than the former).

But the larger issue that this book doesn't get into is how the New Economy guys, all devout members of the Church of the Invisible Hand, were done in by their own economic beliefs working too well.

That basically went that MS would become, and remain, hidebound and lazy like all companies with little real competition (of course, many companies have said they competed against Microsoft, which comes as a real surprise to anyone who has used many of their products ... Linux especially). After all, hadn't IBM and Apple before MS? Our laissez-faire theory tells us so, that economics will trump all human ability ... right?

Well, no one ever thought to imagine that maybe a company that has achieved the kind of market dominance that MS has might just retain the competitive instincts that got it there (as plainly logical as that might be). You're going to have to wait a while for MS to get soft. The story is not that it was easy to win the web war or that MS shouldn't have been at risk of losing it in the force place. It was that they got into it at all. The market is supposed to reward supertankers that turn on a dime, isn't it? (In fact, I believe MS's problems may have come from it being too eager to compete sometimes, owing to Gates' oft-cited paranoia that somewhere out there are two guys in a garage building the future that he won't see coming until too late. But should he be penalized for not forgetting his own company's history?....

Along the way, it was hilarious at first but scary later on to see how standard business practices, and things that would be recognized as smart moves in any other business, were invariably transformed into flaws whenever MS did them. Add lots of features to your OS so a broad segment can find it useful? "Bloatware." Keep in mind your customers who are just casual end users? "Dumbing down the operating system?" (Reminds me of Dilbert: "Hey, you're one of those condescending Unix users!" "Here's a nickel, kid. Go buy yourself a better computer") The looniest was, and still is, Linux, dedicated to the principle that people who don't make money from what they do do a better job than people who do. (And this system is often pushed heavily by some of the most libertarian, pro-free enterprise types around! I still do not get it)

So, seven years after the Web became the Internet's killer app, Microsoft has won, and IMO deservedly so. Deal with it. If you weren't in their tent, you should just cash out, shake Bill Gates' hand like a good sport, recognize that they won because they just played a better game, go enjoy a nice retirement and stop wasting the public's time.

Rating:
Summary: Another Piece of Pro-Microsoft Propaganda
Review: Microsoft has released such a confusing stream of products into the Internet arena, it's hard to keep up with it all. This book provides excellent perspective and historical context for those decisions. I also really enjoyed the compelling writing style of this book, especially on the fascinating charaterizations of the colorful players at Microsoft. A good read for anyone interested in the history of the Internet!

Rating:
Summary: a great read that kept me interested throughout
Review: Obviously, a book of this nature will draw criticisms simply because it covers the Microsoft turnaround and the people behind the company's success. People who dislike Microsoft already will most likely continue to dislike the company and won't find much to enjoy in this book. But I found the story to be an interesting and fair account of the Internet challenges facing Microsoft and their resulting strategies. Andrews gives great background on each of the players and makes you feel that these are real people, not some robots that are out to take over the world. The book kept me interested throughout and I look forward to Paul Andrew's future books. Good job!

Rating:
Summary: Another Piece of Pro-Microsoft Propaganda
Review: This book is obviously very slanted and biased in Microsoft's favor. It seems as if this book came straight out of the Microsoft book of propaganda! All of Microsoft's actions in the past are shown to be harmless and not anticompetitive. In total contrast, the actions of Microsoft's competitors are shown in a very negative light. Even the most incidental actions of Microsoft's competitors are shown in a bad light. It is odd then that Microsoft escapes this accounting. The author is obviously very pro-Microsoft and I would not be surprised to see that he may have close contacts at the company. The author does not really show how Microsoft's actions regarding "leveraging their OS into other software areas" could lead to destruction of competition in the computer industry. In fact, he either outright ignores this argument or downplays it! Even if you are interested in how the web was won, this book does not really give much insight to outside developments. There is no real context given. Other books fully account for the complex events surrounding the battle for supremacy on the internet. This book does not. It skims over much of the "outside action" and instead focuses only on Microsoft and it's quest to dominate the new emerging industry. Of course, given that this book should revolve around Microsoft but it should NOT exclude other angles to the story. The author takes Microsoft's side without justifying it for the readers. And ultimately this EXTREMELY BIASED account makes the author lose much of his credibility. Also without going in depth with the emerging industry as a whole the narrative loses much of what would have been very interesting and engrossing story. By and large this is one of the worst books regarding this interesting period in the computer industry. NOT RECOMMENDED. FIND ANOTHER BOOK IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE INTERNET AND THE "BROWSER WARS'.