From: Einar Stefferud
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 20:24:52 -0700
Hi Dave -- My take is that what Netscape is doing is a experimental research activity, which may or may not set the defacto standards for the Internet Web, but that in the end, the need for massive collaboration to make the Internet work will remain, so in the end, a standard will be set and it will be open.

Netscape (NS) does not own the web, as MS owns DOS, so NS is going to have to accept that they are not alone. In the end, I believe that the Internet will take NS and MS in tow, though it is going to take a while for this to take effect.

Looking at the bright side (yes, there is a bright side), we could try to just stop all web and browser development until the IETF sorted out the standards, but that would deny the community its rightful chance to experiment and find out what works and what does not.

The main question is: Would it be better to stop and wait, or is it better to engage in all this frothy experimentation and early exploitation of the value of the web, while waiting for the right concepts to be sorted out?

I vote for going at it now, in spite of the appearance that the net is going to hell in a hand basket. In the end, the requirement for the Whole Internet to collaborate is going to take hold, and the standards will get sorted out.

The Internet is Occam's Razor and it is going to scrape off all the inappropriate core complexities, as happens with all Internet Standards. If NS overly complicates their technology, someone else will come along with a simplification and wipe them out in the greater internet.

If NS can dominate by putting up a free-copy server, so can the next guy with a better idea? Since NS does not have a monopoly on brains, they are in an extremely vulnerable position, unless they learn to collaborate better with the rest of the world.

For example, have they learned a lesson from Blinking Headers, and removed them in V2? If not, they remain very vulnerable to smarter standards setters out there in the Web World.

So, my lament is that we have to go through this purgatory to get to the other side;-)... But, I must believe that eventaully we will get there, and most likely get there faster this way (perhaps at greater capital expense).

We are caught between the pull and push modes of information access. I sure don't like the idea of leaving EMail and cranking up a web connection, waiting for PPP to connect and all that stuff, just to read some mail.

In many ways, I think the web is taking us the wrong way in general. How about sending me a MIME digest? Sure woudl be nice if one could mount a mime digest in a web page, whcih could either be dragged down or requested to be sent via EMail.

The EMAIL/WEB Split is the worst bifurcation of all;-(...

\Stef