Nothing But Net

By Rob Yoegel

During a recent trip to the neighborhood book store, I came across a favorite section--the discount table. There, resting so comfortably, like an Internet Explorer icon on a Windows desktop, was Bill Gates' November 1996 book, The Road Ahead. The asking price? A paltry $2.95, including accompanying CD-ROM with an outdated Web browser.

That same week, wire services and major metropolitan newspapers featured stories and photographs of Bill Gates and Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing discussing Microsoft's alleged monopoly of the browser market. Sandwiched between the two--lucky him--was Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy.