AOL has come down to earth. CompuServe has lost its content flow. Novell is undermined. MSN is becoming a web-based service, ready to lose huge money. Services are interchangeable.
Proprietary advantages are irrelevent.
Now many people are looking for a new Netscape. At the same time, all of Microsoft's attention is focused there. Just as when Windows 95 was happening, if something like the web were happening now, they wouldn't understand. Things were much quieter, the world was much smaller, the last time something like the web happened. Microsoft took a leading position.