1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Overall, pretty brutal, August 25, 2001
This review is from: How the Web Was Won: How Bill Gates and His Internet Idealists Transformed the Microsoft Empire (Paperback)
This book could have been written by Microsoft's PR group, since it so blatantly paints them as innocent coders just trying to better the world and makes no attempt to balance that position by exploring any dissenting opinions. The first few chapters are relatively interesting, covering some of the early internal development that's not widely covered elsewhere, but as soon as he gets near the antitrust stuff, Andrews is so pro-Microsoft that it's tough to believe what he's saying.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
How the Interviews Were Won: Sucking up, August 16, 2001
This review is from: How the Web Was Won: How Bill Gates and His Internet Idealists Transformed the Microsoft Empire (Paperback)
Bill Gates will like this book. It casts him in a very favourable light. Andrews is consistent - in any issues of argument between Microsoft and its competitors, be they Sun, AOL, Netscape, or a host of other companies, Microsoft is the benevolent company that only wants to do well and the competitors are out to get this well-intentioned, if lumbering, giant.
This book is biased. But such bias is inherent in the format of the work - an insider expose of the history of Microsoft. It is the breadth and depth of information that the author was able to gain for access to internal Microsoft emails and interviews with relevant parties that makes the book the interesting page-turner that it is. That is both the book's biggest weakness and it's greatest strength.
"How the Web Was Won" is filled with Internet Explorer icons. Everything from the cover to the chapter heading are decorated in the (in)famous blue 'e'. When reading this book one would expect that more of it would focus on the actual development of the browser. Instead, the development of the browser is relegated to a single chapter and the remainder of the book is a combination of armchair strategy analysis and a recount of previously published information relating to the so-called "Browser Wars".
Don't look to this book for an independent look at the browser wars. Don't look to this book for a view from the front lines of browser development. This is yet another history of Microsoft from the DOS days to the latest .NET initiative, all coloured by the lens of looking at all developments from the perspective of the internet.
I take notes when I read a book. Based on my notes, this is what I learned from this work:
* Recent events in technology have moved from technology being driven by war to more peaceful societal pursuits - Lockheed Martin vs. Microsoft * IBM failed on the desktop because its software design process was rigid - and that was necessary for "five 9s" reliability on servers
However, they didn't change to the desktop which needed innovation and iteration at the expense of reliability
Microsoft succeeded in supplanting IBM because it used fast iterations on its products to get shipping code at the expense of perfect code.
Microsoft has failed in moving from the desktop to the server-side internet where greater reliability (security, virus-protection) is needed at the expense of features
* NAFTA's chapt.11 charges that Canada Post can't use government-subsidised revenue to finance a business that competes with a private enterprise
Microsoft used Windows money in the browser fight against Netscape
These are my thoughts on this interesting and personable recount of already published information.
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1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Engrossing and Informative, November 27, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: How the Web Was Won: How Bill Gates and His Internet Idealists Transformed the Microsoft Empire (Paperback)
You've all heard of Billionaire Bill Gates and the Merry Men of Microsoft. The story, in light of the recent antitrust ruling, is a good bit of modern history. Although a little too heavy on the biographies of the players, the narraive is well paced and seemingly objective. This book is for all who are using Windows, those who hate it, and wonder all about the Redmond, Washington company and what goes on behind its walls. The story is basically that of Microsoft and how it was about to write off the Internet until it was forced to work with it- and did it so well that the Feds came in (and other companies) want to put a stop to it. Really, this book is well written and entertaining for all those who, like me, want to keep up with the history of this seemingly overnight phenomenon known as the Internet.
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