> Microsoft's business model was 'we need to deal with Netscape before the Web kicks our ass' followed by 'we own the market now, no need to spend resources improving this'.
I think it was a bit more general: "We want to keep a stranglehold on the Apis used to write general software". The ability to write software once for the web and have it work on web browsers on any platform was viewed as an existential threat.
However, the observation that they only developed IE as long as they were worried about that threat and then left it to rot afterwards is spot on.
Their strategy was aimed against their competitors interests, not their users interests. Microsoft in the bad old days still saw their users as paying customers and not just a source of data to be exploited.
I think it was a bit more general: "We want to keep a stranglehold on the Apis used to write general software". The ability to write software once for the web and have it work on web browsers on any platform was viewed as an existential threat.
However, the observation that they only developed IE as long as they were worried about that threat and then left it to rot afterwards is spot on.
Their strategy was aimed against their competitors interests, not their users interests. Microsoft in the bad old days still saw their users as paying customers and not just a source of data to be exploited.