10-16-95. NYPaper: "The New Watchdogs of Digital Commerce." Think of them as a truth squad of cyberspace, these crusading graduate-student hackers from Berkeley. "This is a tradition of unfettered inquiry and curiosity," said John Gilmore, "for hackers, nothing is sacred and everything is subject to verification before you can really believe it." "The hacker ethic is transferring some of its better lessons to the world of commerce," said Steven Levy, "we're groping for a way to use the Net in a way where information will flow freely and people can still make money. The hackers are going to help us find ways to have a more humanized system of commerce." "Will Netscape be the next Microsoft, or the next victim of Microsoft?" Some investors believe Netscape could become "the next Microsoft." Other people believe that Netscape could become the next Microsoft victim, and that the next Microsoft is none other than Microsoft itself. All these new features of Navigator 2.0 send a clear notice to the industry that Netscape has no interest in bowing to the traditional Internet procedures for setting software standards by academic and scientific committee. The Internet has become primarily a commercial medium, where standards are set by whoever has the highest market share. It is a concept Microsoft knows well, and one that Netscape has grasped. MUZ_zle (16 kb)