Mozilla tramples IE

Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny
Oganization: Netscape Communications Corp.
Subject: Mozilla stomps IE
From: francis@netscape.com (John Francis Stracke)
Date: Sat, 4 Oct 97 3:20:05 EDT

Well, keep in mind that I did not see for myself how it was; They told me when it was already over, and showed the result. But:

Last midnight (from September 30 to 1.10), Mr. Bill's new Browser, IE 4.0, was released. Between midnight and 1:30, someone (who could it be?) Dragged a huge IE symbol and placed it on the lawn in front of the Netscape building. The structure was metal, thick enough to stand upright. They probably thought that we would not notice anything until morning; in the meantime, we’ll have time to adjust the equipment to remove the sculpture, reporters will have time to photograph it. We won’t be able to go to court because we don’t have any evidence on MS and we will look offended by nerds.

Needless to say, MS screwed up. They forgot that we are still at work at midnight! Someone noticed a new decoration on the lawn, and did not waste in vain the efforts to remove it. They decided to show Bill what they were doing: they gathered everyone they could find, knocked down the symbol to the ground, and wrote “Netscape Now” on their side with a spray can. Then they dragged our two-meter-high figure of Mozilla (the Netscape mascot monster), and placed it on top of the IE logo.



Now Mozilla stood on the body of the defeated enemy with a satisfied smirk, raising his thumb. Reporters walked around and filmed. He was shown on TV and in local newspapers; they say even Reuters came out with a report. We are not enthusiastic about the fact that the case received publicity, everything is too childish ... But they first started! :-)

Reuters: Microsoft after partying made fun of Netscape

06:49, October 2, 1997

Mountain View, CA: Apparently, the festive event, which was attended by 1,000 people on Wednesday night, was not enough for some Microsoft employees. At the end of the holiday, they wanted to play a trick on their rivals in the development of Internet programs, Netscape Communications.

Netscape staff found a huge blue e-shaped décor in front of their front door in the morning.

The day before, a 3x4 meter figure — shaped like the Internet Explorer logo, a Microsoft web browser — was seen at Microsoft's corporate party in San Francisco. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and nearly 1,000 employees celebrated the release of the latest version of IE.

Around 1:30 on Wednesday, in front of Netscape’s headquarters in Mountain View, they saw a group of people unloading the giant e, according to Chris Holten of Netscape. She added that a note was attached to the scenery: "from IE developers."

“I think it’s just not serious to resort to student tricks to get attention,” Holten said. “We are an industry leader. A similar trick could have been expected from a bold startup, but not from the world's largest software company. ”

We were not able to get comments from Microsoft.

Netscape and Microsoft have been fighting for the web browser market for two years now. By most estimates, Netscape Navigator’s browser share is around ¾, but Microsoft is quickly catching up with each new release of Internet Explorer.

This time Netscape laughed the last: their employees planted a four-meter foam plastic figure of their talisman on a blue “e” - a green Godzilla-like monster called “Mozilla”.

At Mozilla’s feet there is a sign: “Netscape - 72, Microsoft - 18”, which gives the latest data on the market shares of browsers.