Looking at the comment again I guess you can read it either way, though to be honest it reads more like he was talking about Netscape the company, not Navigator the browser.
As for long term, after taking out Navigator the browser market stalled for 6 years until Firefox started gaining traction. That's why it was a Bad Thing long term.
MS entire strategy was to hold up the development of the web as it made less from that than desktops, thin clients running web apps frightened it silly. It worked. Hence long-term bad thing due to stagnation.
Who knows what version HTML we'd be on if the browsers had stayed competitive for those 6 years. Instead we're almost at a point where maybe rounded corners will be available to all soon.
I never said I thought IE5/6 was crap when they came out, I myself have rolled out the old XmlHttpRequest innovation defence.
The stagnation of IE was the impetus for FF to rise and start MS developing IE again, not Navigator's open sourcing. Had someone been able to make good money on browsers I'd argue we'd be further down this path.
As for long term, after taking out Navigator the browser market stalled for 6 years until Firefox started gaining traction. That's why it was a Bad Thing long term.
MS entire strategy was to hold up the development of the web as it made less from that than desktops, thin clients running web apps frightened it silly. It worked. Hence long-term bad thing due to stagnation.
Who knows what version HTML we'd be on if the browsers had stayed competitive for those 6 years. Instead we're almost at a point where maybe rounded corners will be available to all soon.
I never said I thought IE5/6 was crap when they came out, I myself have rolled out the old XmlHttpRequest innovation defence.
The stagnation of IE was the impetus for FF to rise and start MS developing IE again, not Navigator's open sourcing. Had someone been able to make good money on browsers I'd argue we'd be further down this path.