November 1995: a war and a peace treaty in the same week.

On November 22, 1995 Microsoft shipped Internet Explorer 2.0 and the browser wars began in earnest, a brawl for control of the front door to the internet. Two days later the HTML 2.0 standard was formally published, an agreement that any page should work in any browser.

Both things were true at once. Companies fought like hell to own the experience, while a quieter group insisted the underlying language stay open and shared. The web survived because the second group held the line.

I think about that balance constantly. Compete on the product, cooperate on the protocol. Confuse the two and you get either a monopoly or a mess.