Browser Wars
After the creation of Mocha/JavaScript, there was a battle of scripts, due to Brendan’s superior scripting language, this caused companies to fight for control within the world of web development.
Logo for the reversed Engineered JavaScript, Jscript. (StackExchange, Samir)
The First Browser War
Microsoft was able to reverse engineer JavaScript. From this, They were able to stay on level terms with Netscape’s JavaScript.
“Microsoft debuted Internet Explorer in 1995, leading to a browser war with Netscape. On the JavaScript front, Microsoft reverse-engineered the Navigator interpreter to create its own, called JScript.”(JavaScript, Wikipedia).
Microsoft’s JScript was a major hit, skyrocketing past their competitor Netscape and their JavaScript.
"Netscape was a software company. Its main revenue came from users paying for Navigator." (Investopedia article by Beattie)
"[Microsoft] made money by licensing its operating system to computer manufacturers and by selling products that worked with that operating system, such as Word and Excel."(Investopedia article by Beattie)
"Microsoft gained an increasingly dominant position in the browser market. By the early 2000s, Internet Explorer's market share reached 95%." (JavaScript, Wikipedia)
Monopoly
"In the end, Microsoft won the browser war against Netscape for two simple reasons: It had deep enough pockets to offer its browser free forever” (What Were the "Browser Wars"?, Andrew Beattie).
From the First Browser Wars, Microsoft gained a monopoly on the Internet.
Became the United States vs. Microsoft case.
"The central issue was whether Microsoft was allowed to bundle its IE web browser software with its Windows operating system. " (United States v. Microsoft Corp. Wikipedia).
Microsoft argued that IE was now tied to Windows.
Opponents countered saying that IE was on MacOS.
On April 3, 2000, Jackson said that Microsoft had a monopoly.
“Microsoft lost the case, but they won their key point on appeal: The company was not forced to split itself into two, separating its operating system business and its software business.” (What Were the "Browser Wars"?, Andrew Beattie).
An image of the US vs. Microsoft court case as an abridged version. (United States VS Microsoft, Rinehart).
Excerpt from Quora post summarizing the start of the second browser war in creative ways. (Soohoo Evan)
The Second Browser war
The second browser war started as Internet Explorer did not make any developments to JScript or the browser after defeating Netscape. Thus innovation was brought by angry and enthusiastic coders. Apple joins with Webkit (the Chrome/Safari base), Netscape turns to Mozilla with a newly developed base for code (Firefox).
"The Second Browser War was ON. Microsoft was not ready. ... this would be the end of Windows dominance."(Philip Remaker)
Graph detailing Market share of Browsers. (StatCounter)