George wrote:

Microsoft runs on 90%+ of the world's computers and most of those
folks use OE or Outlook or Vista's Windows Mail program. Microsoft
is, therefore, the "keeper of the standard." It is incumbent upon
the wannabes to conform to the way Microsoft does things, not the
other way 'round. "*Every other mail/news client*" don't make up 10%
of the world's effort.


But thats hardly accurate. Microsoft has frequently been a "wannabe"
and found itself chasing the taillights of others. They completely
missed the idea of the Internet and scrambled to cobble IE together.
They had to use the common and standards based TCP/IP and DNS for
connectivity because their methods were extremely desktop centric and
woefully lacking. Currently they have been chasing Googles taillights
for years because they completely missed the idea that powerful
search tools would be a key and lucrative thing.


You are correct that in some areas Microsoft has had to play catch-up. In
some of those cases (Internet Explorer vs. Netscape), Microsoft won the game
and gets to keep the ball. In other areas, such as search engines, the
'game' is more like a Rugby scrum, with Microsoft refusing to concede
defeat. In the case of newsreaders, Google may be advancing the ball; but
not entirely because of its expertiese. Recall that Google got into this
area by the simple expedient of purchasing Deja News in 2001.

Still, Microsoft probably has more experts - designers, technicians,
psychologists, artists, PhD mathematicians, programmers, system designers,
herbalists, etc. - working on computer compatability and usage issues than
there are employees in the National Bureau of Standards.