Ah yes... I remember Netscape (or Nutscape, as we fondly called it, along with "Exploder...") and it was a pretty solid browser.
"Push Technology" pretty much is responsible for a lot of the "garbageware" that became today's de-facto standards. Microsnot were the masters of push technology; they put stuff there, and unless you know how to opt out via an "advanced" install, it was in your face, no matter what.
It was one of the reasons I bailed on the IT industry in the late 1990s...
Thanks so much for stopping by! And combine that push technology with the back-doors Microsoft intentionally leaves open in its operating systems, and you know why Windows computers are so damn fragile when it comes to viruses... ;-)
Well, your post resonated... brought up things I hadn't thought about in a really long time.
I worked in usability and human factors at Dell, and it was pretty much a joke. I was also a technical writer, creating documentation and working on intranets. Everything was about keeping investors and shareholders happy, not keeping customers happy. We were told to bury the Tech Support 800-number so deep in the documentation that people were unlikely to find it. It was a huge shitshow...
And so, you end up with fragile Windoze boxes people can afford, or sturdy Apple boxes filled with so much proprietary hard and software they cost a small fortune and most people can't afford them. Take your pick!
So true! That thing about burying the tech-support number's something I hear my clients complain about on a daily basis... It's a shit-show alright...