The second browser war, by Ben Hammersley.

“…why did Microsoft stop developing Internet Explorer? Why would a company so vocal about innovation cease work on perhaps the most used application in the world, and for nearly three years? The answer is not definitive, but the prevailing thinking points to the third aspect of the browser war: it is the beginning of an even larger, if deeply curious, battle for the domination of the entire computer industry.”

I remain suspicious about the possibility of web apps to become the thin client or network computer heralded in years past, but it’s clear there’s something going on, and MS really does look like it’s being forced to hedge its bets a bit more than it has done in the past couple of years.