Netscape the Big Win

[Timothy C. May]

Here is my experience with the last month of heavily using Netscape (1.1N),
after several years of using a mix of Unix-based tools on a Unix shell
account at Netcom (and several years of using Portal before that, beginning
in 1988).

(And intermittent Net use from 1973, when I had a very primitive account in
college at UC Santa Barbara, on the "Arpanet," to the mid-80s, when I had
various accounts while still at Intel.)

* 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.)

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.

IBM just paid nearly $3 billion for Lotus, largely for the "common
platform" of Lotus Notes. I believe Netscape is an even more important
common platform, and will displace Notes.

I have been asked many times by various of you about investments, as I've
been making my living the past decade through investments. The message here
is my strongest statement about what to invest in.

(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

..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay at sensemedia.net   | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-728-0152           | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Corralitos, CA         | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."