Pride Cometh before the fall.

Back in the early days of public Internet, the only TCP/IP stack, dialer, and browser package was NETSCAPE.

As an ISP, i had no choice but to pay NETSCAPE $5 (i'm assuming the NDC has expired) for every single new user.

Thats right, NETSCAPE was getting five bucks (more or less) for every new user of the Internet.

Meanwhile, Bill Gates believed nobody would be Interested in the new "internet" stuff untill it was fast enough to watch movies. NETSCAPE was totally under his radar.

Then one day, Marc Andreeson, the main Wonk at NETSCAPE gave a great speech, not only extolling the virtues of their products, but bragging that they were no only growing faster than Microsoft, but that they had a replacement desktop in tyhe works.

HINT: do not prod sleeping giants with pointy sticks.

The first version of the Microsoft IEAK was rushed into distribution, gicing ISP's a free alternative to netscape.

That was the beginning of the wimpering ending we will see Feb 1.