As the Apple Turns: Scene 248: Bad Timing in Redmond (12/7/97)

Bad Timing in Redmond (12/7/97)

Hmmm, gotta wonder if the recent planetary alignment had anything to do with the latest Microsoft timing fiasco. Just as they get their day in court to fight for their right to force the installation of Internet Explorer on every Windows 95 computer that ships, an uproar breaks out about how the latest Option Pack for Windows NT requires the installation of that selfsame browser. CNet has the story.

You can see the instructions for installing the Option Pack on Microsoft's web site: "Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 must be installed on the target system before you install the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack... This does not prohibit your use of other browsers... download IE 4.01 now!" Yet this odd requirement has sysadmins the world over wondering why on earth they need to install IE just to install this Option Pack. Is it Microsoft trying its darnedest to put IE on every machine it can, or is this really just due to some particularity about the code for the NT web server? Regardless, it's certainly poor timing that this issue would arise smack-dab in the middle of the DoJ flap.

Congratulations, by the way, to Microsoft's executive vice president of sales and support Steve Ballmer, who managed to use the phrase "odd confluence of events" three times in five sentences. That takes some serious talent. Or something.

SceneLink (248)

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The above scene was taken from the 12/7/97 episode:

December 7, 1997: (Sorry—this was before we started writing intro text for each episode!)

Other scenes from that episode:

247: Anyone Wanna Be CEO? (12/7/97) Remember the "single strong candidate" for Apple CEO that Larry Ellison mentioned a while back? Well, whether or not that candidate was Lee Iacocca, he or she has flown the coop, leaving Apple with nobody on deck and a scant four weeks to go until MacWorld Expo, which many consider to be an important deadline by which Apple needs to find a new leader...
249: Quaking Rhapsodic (12/7/97) Whining about the technical deficiencies of the Mac OS is nothing new to id programmer John Carmack, who brought the world classic gore games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake. Ports of all of those games made it to the Mac (eventually), but Quake 2, which just got released on the PC end, is "not going to be on MacOS 8," which Carmack describes as "crusty" and unworthy of his respect...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...


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