RE: Netscape the Big Win

["Pat Farrell" <pfarrell@netcom.com>]

  tcmay@sensemedia.net (Timothy C. May)  writes:

> * I use Netscape to read News.
> * I use Netscape to access the Web.
> * I still use Eudora to send and receive Mail. (Netscape can currently
> send mail, but not receive it. This is likely to change soon.)

I'm not about to argue that the web isn't the hotest thing on the net,
which is the hotest thing in computing... But I've got a question
that I can't resolve.

The current trend is to bundle all types of functionality into huge
monolithic programs. Add mail to netscape, add encryption, add ...

Yet most of the computers people use are multi-windows, and soon most
will even be multi-tasking.

Why are all-in-one programs so preferable to using the windowing
capabilities that are built into every X-window, Mac or Windows system?

Why not use the best mail client, another best webcrawler, and yet another
news reader?

Microsoft has been preaching the use of OLE and component programs as its
development vision for 2+ years, Macs have been popular for ten years,
why is the trend still towards adding every possible bell and whistle
to single programs?

With components, it wouldn't be hard to have a universal
Encryption/Signature module. It would get arround any propriatary
restriction that vendors may or may not try to enforce ("can Netscape be
extended or not" becomes moot).

Is clicking on another icon really too hard?

Pat

Pat Farrell    Grad Student      http://www.isse.gmu.edu/students/pfarrell
Info. Systems & Software Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
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