Yeah, that was ~ 1 decade ago. I'm fully aware that you could have a modern web experience with Microsoft way back 10 years ago. But 10 years ago isn't today. Today is today, and Microsoft no longer provides a modern web experience.

AJAX isn't modern anymore. Don't you see that the AJAX innovation was a game changer, but that the game has moved on since then?

<i>There would be no AJAX today had Microsoft</i>

I was loading AJAX data into hidden <frame>s in Navigator 4 using a JSON-like hack in 1998. It worked just fine.

Yes there would. You could do "ajax" style communication using <layer> tags in Netscape 4 even before IE4 came out.

But no-one was.

And where would we be if AOL hadn't given us all unlimited dial-up access for a low monthly price?