And once we assimilate all corporate Intranets we will get them using ActiveX and other MS proprietary junk that will spread to the Internet.

The easy way to lock yourselves in to a single vendor proprietary solution.

Microsoft Proxy Server - widely known on the Internet as "the idiot's firewall".  NTLM authentication is known as "a bastardization of the CERN protocol".

Put your network in our hands (crush!!!!!!)

Watch for a Microsoft Proxy Server coming soon to a corporation near you. (Or listen for the screams.)

What? Not everybody in your company has been assimilated  to Internet Explorer? Well this will eliminate those last few free thinkers REAL good. 

Linux users must upgrade to Microsoft's wonderful Windows 98 or go Internet-less because MS doesn't make MSIE for Linux 

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A "proxy server" is a computer that stands between a computer network and the Internet, sending and receiving information on behalf of the network user while preventing outsiders on the Internet from entering the network. A normal web proxy allows users to retrieve Internet information with a large number of different Internet applications. 

The big difference between a normal web proxy and a Microsoft's web proxy is that by default, before the user can access Internet information their Internet application must perform a special secret "handshake" with the proxy (Called NT Lan Manager or NTLM authentication). The only application that knows how to perform this "handshake" correctly is Microsoft Internet Explorer. MS won't tell anyone else how to perform this handshake. This prevents ANY other Internet Applications from working. Say good-bye to Netscape Navigator, Opera, Lynx, Mosaic, or any other browser. 

Can Microsoft Proxy Server support any non-Microsoft applications? Well, yes, but Microsoft has tangled it up so badly that these methods either pose a security hazard, work slower, requires the OS to be Microsoft Windows, and/or defeat the purpose of having an authenticating web proxy. 

The DOJ should order MS to give out their code for performing that secret handshake, that would help level out the playing field here. 
 

UPDATE: If you are being forced to use only MSIE because of your IT department's foolish decision to use only NTLM authentication, check out these pages:

 'NTML Authorization Proxy Server'.
 [fmII] - Project details for NTLM Authorization Proxy Server

This guy has reverse engineered NTLM and built a local proxy that can authenticate on behalf of any other browser that supports standard HTTP proxies. It looks like a "proof of concept", but it actually works! Get it while it's here! Microsoft may try and shut this guy down soon!

UPDATE: The current version of Mozilla now has built in NTLM authentication support that is also cross platform. It is a shame that Mozilla was locked out for so long, it probably lost some potential market share over that time. But it is here now and Bill can not keep Mozilla out!