Internet View: High Price For Free Software

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September 22, 1997

Internet View: High Price For Free Software

By Jason Levitt
as anyone else noticed that Microsoft is giving away a lot of software for free? It's a situation that I both applaud and disdain. The applause comes easily because Microsoft is now a single source for a lot of software infrastructure that previously had to be cobbled together from third parties. Deployment is easier for buyers and administrators, and developers can concentrate on delivering high-end applications.
But this vision of accelerated software Darwinism isn't a healthy environment for competition or innovation. Microsoft justifies free software components such as Internet Explo rer and Internet Information Server by claiming that they are basic operating-system software that needs to be included as part of the operating system. That's an extreme reversal from the era of Windows 3.1 when, for example, 11 commercial TCP/IP stacks were available. The introduction of Windows 95, which came with TCP/IP bundled, vastly improved the quality of end-user networking software but rendered the Windows TCP/IP stack market inert. Similarly, Microsoft stomped on the Windows NT Web server market, which once had 10 or so vendors, by bundling IIS with Windows NT.
Whether Microsoft admits it or not, the easy justification for free software is to eliminate the competition-and in this case, the major Internet competition is Netscape. Perhaps ironically, it was Netscape that proved the value of giving away Internet software by so thoroughly capturing the browser market with its early versions of Navigator. The difference is that Netscape didn't give away its software for commercial use and doesn't o wn the operating system.
Netscape was lucky. It got in early and took the lead over Microsoft in browser mindshare and technology, but other companies haven't fared as well. Part of the fallout caused by all this free software is that developers must think twice before investing a lot of resources into developing Windows Internet software that could be easily threatened by a competing implementation from Microsoft.
It seems like heresy to suggest that Microsoft start charging for NetShow, NetMeeting, Internet Explorer, IIS, and the Internet Explorer Administration kit. It may be enough if it stays out of the Unix server market but ensures that its Internet client software is implemented using open protocols so it can be used in conjunction with Unix servers. Products such as IIS and NetShow Server require Windows NT Server, and that definitely costs a lot of money.
Jason Levitt can be reached at jlevitt@cmp.com
You can read his Internet Zone column on InformationWeek Online at techweb.cmp.com/iw/author/internet.htm .

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