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On Sat, 10 Jun 1995 Milwnews@aol.com wrote:

> I think it is feasible, I suspect many on this list would love to hear what
> you find out and particularly the rationale behind it (though we might be
> able to guess) and  what the ramifications are of targeting MSN  as opposed
> to  other commercial services with web connections.

In case you hadn't heard, Micrososft plans to sell access at cut-throat 
prices ($4/month) and hit the content providers with most of the cost 
($1/hour).  How many weeks do you think it will be before Microsoft says
"Pay up or lose our customers forever", along with a bill for $5000/month.

You will be able to make money using a "lan manager" authentication scheme,
but remember such systems require that the server "advertze itself".  It's
a bit like letting everyone on the net know where the hidden safe is.

If Microsoft can kill S-Http, SSL, and all other potential rival charging
systems, Microsoft will be calling the shots (exclusively) again.  Anyone 
who has been a developer for Windows (any release) can tell stories about 
how Microsoft insisted that they "follow the rules", while their applications
used "secret calls" which gave an 80% performance improvement (Word vs. 
Wordperfect, 1-2-3 vs Excel, Dbase vs Excel,...)

The internet threatens the existance of Microsoft (it was designed for and
with UNIX systems - and exploits those features).  About 99% of the
Internet hosts are Unix based.  If users are exposed to Unix, they might
abandon Windows over the next 5 years.  It took 15 years for the internet 
to become an overnight success, could Unix be next?

Remember, the Unix market is firecely competitive.  Since 99.99% of the 
system is identical in terms of how it occurs to the user and application 
programmer, and since most programmers try to avoid the .01% that is vendor
unique, the price/performance is always quite spectacular.

> Dominique Paul Noth

> >I have found a couple of people in my neck of the woods planning this
> >but I'd be keen to find out how widespread this is or how feasible it
> >is?

Depending on how Microsoft implements it's network address strategy, it 
could be as trivial as putting router filters that block microsoft
addresses.

	Rex Ballard
	Standard & Poor's/McGraw-Hill
	Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect
	the Management of the McGraw-Hill Companies.




From rballard@cnj.digex.net Mon Jun 26 15:34:08 1995
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