Dear Steve Ballmer: Adopt Firefox

Dear Steve,

I guess you must have missed my January 8 post, so I'll give it another try.

The market pundits have been critical of your efforts to cut costs in the face of the recession. So here I offer a simple solution: announce that IE8 will be the last release of Internet Explorer. Announce that as of Windows 8 (yes, the successor to the in-process Windows 7), Firefox will be the preferred Windows browser.

It will be easy to do this. Do not include a browser with Windows 8. Add a one-click control to the Windows interface that says "Select Web Browser." Pop up a list that includes Chrome and Opera with Firefox at the top as the default. When clicked, it takes you to the install page for the chosen browser on the web.

Now, before you get all revved up with your "we can't separate the browser from the OS" spiel, we techies know better. True, there is a set of internet services that are needed inside Windows so that certain APIs work. Supply these core capabilities in a minimalist way. But no full-fledged browser. Trust me, your engineers can do this.

Why Firefox? Because Google is too much of a competitor and Opera is, well, flaky. And there is something delicious about the notion of Microsoft adopting the progeny of Netscape. Oh, and Firefox is real good and widely used already.

Now I know you may still think there is some sort of competitive issue about "owning the browser." Nonsense. The original Netscape threat was actually twofold. First, the only way Microsoft was going to "get" the internet was to build its own browser and engage in the browser war. Face it, you guys were bumping into walls trying to figure the internet out or make it go away. The browser war brought you kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

The second issue, the real strategic threat, was the traction Netscape server products were getting, just as Windows servers were taking off. Sure, Netscape over-promised and under-delivered. But that could have changed. The browser war was a perfect example of a Crown Jewels Attack. As spelled out in my book Attacking The Crown Jewels, this defensive strategy is to attack a product core to the enemy's strategy, one that it must expend resources defending at all costs. This pulls resources away form the enemy's product that threatens your strategy. You did this. You attacked Netscape's browser, pulling resources away for their nascent server product line. This stamped out the threat to Windows servers. It was beautifully done, even if you were not intentionally doing it.

Think of the savings! All of the engineering, marketing, and support resources that Internet Explorer consumes would be available for redeployment or release. The European Union would lose one of its treasured reasons for MS-whipping. Legal savings alone would be substantial.

In fond anticipation, I say, you're welcome.