TCMay:

Why is this important?

I believe, quite strongly, that we are headed toward a situation where the large majority of Net/Web users are using some variant of Netscape, or Mosaic/MacWeb/etc. (but probably Netscape, for various reasons).

Integration of crypto into Netscape is thus the Big Win.

I felt this was the case as far back as last fall, but my recent experiences tell me this is more important than ever. Integration of PGP and other crypto routines into Tin, Pine, Elm, Joe, Emacs, etc., is just not as important.

...

(I'm not saying one has to stand in line for the August IPO of Netscape Communications, but the overall market will favor the Web browsers, especially Netscape.)

The relevance for Cypherpunks interested in writing code is that, in my carefully considered opinion, writing for Netscape and other Web browsers is the Big Win. Even over Windows (except Windows browsers, of course).

--Tim May

I only have time to keep up with my mailing lists on the weekend, so these may have been mentioned, but... Didn't Netscape get the short end of a major banking alliance recently? And wasn't Microsoft's network and security software favored by that? Has anyone here messed about with PDAs/PICs? The Apple Newton doesn't have much in the way of communication, but MagicCap based boxes such as Sony's Magic Link have an awful lot of (as yet unrealized) potential. I see as much promise/threat for communications security in the newer PDA/PIC devices as in Netscape. But then i also want Netscape to invoke Eudora for mail and Newswatcher for news, rather than having to use the as yet unstable Netscape tools. allen