You might have thought Usenet was dead. Think again. Microsoft’s recent release of Internet Explorer 4.0 has ensured, for a short time at least, that Usenet is not being used solely by spammers, flamers and those with too much time on their hands.
Since IE 4.0 was made available on Microsoft’s Web site, several Usenet groups have been besieged with thousands of messages praising, damning or simply questioning different aspects of the program. Read a cross-section of the 7,000-odd (some of them quite odd) messages on microsoft.public.inetexplorer.ie4 to get a sense of why some jokesters may start referring to Internet Explorer and Internet Exploder.
Much of what is being featured on these newsgroup sites is what you’d expect to read when a major software company releases a new dot-zero version of its flagship Internet product: queries about download sites, complaints regarding download time and the mail delivery speed of CD-ROMs, pointers to support sites, and the occasionally amusing “easter egg” hidden in the program.
The tone of these messages is standard, ranging from the boosterish (kudos frequently appear from those without Microsoft.com addresses) to the conspiratorial (i.e., Microsoft is using IE 4 to take over the government). The volume of messages, however, for IE4 is much higher than usual. A new version of a Symantec programming tool, for example, is lucky to yield one percent of Microsoft.public.inetexplorer.ie4’s 7,000 responses.
While the variety of reactions to the new release is noteworthy, so are the expectations of the company held by many of these posters. Many, perhaps as much as one-third, of the queries and reports of minor bugs are respectful, polite and considerate of the complainant’s own complicity with his or her particular problem: “I know the manual said to keep the newer version of the .DLL, but . . . ” However, angry posters want from Microsoft immediate responses, which are not forthcoming, and several reap revenge on the company by posting messages documenting extremely unpleasant attempts to install the program:
Subject: What 4 stands for in IE4…
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 09:28:12 -0700
From: David Boydston (less than)daveb@sc-systems.NoSpamForMe.com(greater than)
Organization: Millennia Communications, LLC
OK, Microsoft marketing is incredible, no argument there. We finally tried to install IE4 and have found out what Microsoft marketing should be telling you about IE4.
1) Plan on a 4 hour download if you have a fast modem.
2) Plan a 4 hour install to deal with all the headaches. The IE4 install on our system generated 13 GPFs (General Protection Fault) and IPFs (Invalid Page Fault), then required a *hard* reset. When we tried to uninstall, IE4 generated several GPFs and IPFs from assorted modules (EXPLORER, SOFTBOOT, RUNDLL32) then the EXPLORER module got into an infinite loop of IPFs (it was probably infinite, we gave up after about 40 times) that again required a push of the reset button. We were fortunate. Others say that the IE4 install trashed Win95 and required a new Win95 install.
3) In light of point 2, plan on spending $400 in lost time, lost productivity and IT expenses. (Put your own price on the mental anguish all the install problems cause.)
4) If you develop Java for IE4, plan on spending 4 hours (or so) learning inconsistencies with MsJava.
To be fair, there are also thousands of messages claiming a seamless install.
Most intriguing is the reaction to Active Desktop, the optional desktop-replacement module in IE. It’s at the root of more than three-quarters of the reported problems, and nearly all of the serious ones. Even those posters who are fans of the Internet Explorer 4.0 browser have little nice to say about Active Desktop. Of the 7,012 messages in the newsgroup at press time, only three praised it. Many have gotten Active Desktop to work with minimal or no tweaking, but nearly nobody likes it.
This may be what seasoned Microsoft-watchers anticipated. Active Desktop is a nascent technology that is not expected to be stable until Windows 98 is released, which is why Microsoft shifted its policy to offer it as an optional component. But nowhere in the installation help file or minimal associated documentation is there any indication that Active Desktop doesn’t quite work yet. To learn that, you have to be a developer who has the resources and expertise to find this information buried in Microsoft’s MSDN Web site or you have to be a regular reader of trade papers or similar Web sites. Something for which at least ninety percent of Microsoft’s customers don’t have the time.
This problem-and thousands of cranky newsgroup postings-would have been nonexistent if Microsoft had simply made the installation of Active Desktop safer by making backup directories more explicit and better guided by equipping the installation application with a step-by-step status check. But very little of the massive traffic on microsoft.public.inetexplorer.ie4 or similar public groups is generated by Microsoft staffers. Perhaps if the company devoted a modicum of its massive resources to these groups, it could manage new releases far more successfully. Right now, many of its customers feel stranded. And that’s no way to build loyalty-or confidence.
We’ll monitor this newsgroup regularly and keep you posted as the IE 4 story develops. We have a new contest!
It looks like we’re staying on the Microsoft track with this week’s contest. Last time, as long-time readers know, we awarded Borland’s Delphi 3 and IntraBuilder to the first two people who answered our diabolical Compaq-battery question. This time, the prize is a shrink-wrapped copy of Microsoft Site Server, including Visual InterDev. Remember, Site Server works only on NT; we tried to install it on Windows 95 and . . . well, we don’t want to talk about it. You’ll need at least 64M bytes of RAM, too.
Here’s this week’s question:
In JavaScript, what does untaint(PIN) mean?
If you’re the first person who sends us a correct answer, Site Server is yours!
