On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Zane H. Healy wrote:
> If you haven't seen the news yet, I found out thanks to http://slashdot.org
> , Microsoft is pulling one of their dirtiest stunts ever in their attempt
> to destroy Netscape. If anyone doesn't think Microsoft is evil this should
> convince them, unless they are niave enough to think Microsoft isn't behind
> this!
What makes you think the Evil Empire is behind this? Did Microsoft buy
Wang recently? If not, they'll get hit with the same suit.
> The problem is, Wang is sueing them for something that almost EVERY piece
> of software available does! Netscape needs examples of software that do
> the things in the patent prior to March 30th, 1983.
It sounds like the Wang patent basically covers rendering formatted
information on a terminal that was acquired via a remote connection. So,
what was the closest thing to a Web browser before 1993? GRiD fan that I
am, I vote for the 1982 GRiD/OS and remote GRiDCentral. GRiD/OS had a
form and menu based OS interface and actions were based on the file type
and extension. GRiDCentral (and the LAN-based GRiDServer) basically
distributed this menu-based filesystem over a remote connection.
-- Doug
Received on Fri Apr 24 1998 - 21:50:23 BST