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Microsoft doesn't like the web.
by theTSF on Mon 9th Dec 2013 16:53 UTC
Member since:

The problem is Microsoft has been historically anti-web/online.

If anyone remembers the pain of getting a PPP or SLIP connection in windows 3.1,
Than Microsoft had to concede to popular demand and gave easier network access in Windows 95... However IE at the time was very basic, enough to download Netscape. They were trying to push people using MSN.
MSN as an AOL replacement failed as people were really wanted to get onto the web. So They beefed up IE in Windows 98 and started the browser war. Microsoft Goal in this browser war was to take control of the standards, and force people on Windows particular controls such as Active X (which we are still suffering the consequences from).
Now Microsoft needs to be sure that they held onto their key advantage over their competition access to software. Sure you had some big titles for Apple, but most software was for Microsoft. And if a lot of these titles were moved to the web and accessible by anyone on any OS, they will loose market share.
Microsoft won the first browser war, however failed in its objectives, as it created a slue of security flaws that cause people to move to Firefox then to Chrome.
Now with Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Pushing hard to support the new HTML standards. Web Applications are far more robust and full feature then ever. There is less of a need for a full OS.

So I am not surprised that MS will push its few advantages over the Cloud based software.

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