VSG
Well-Known Member
That situation was a lot more complicated than you may realize. MS had OS-specific software components with closed, non-public APIs that it was using for the implementation of its browser. A third party who wanted to implement a browser for Windows would not have access to those components or API, and thus would not be able to create a browsers that was as capable and performant as IE. It was certainly not a level playing field, and not simply a question of bundling/unbundling the browser. Likewise, Windows made use of some IE code as part of the operating system, so you couldn't just uninstall IE. MS also did not make it easy to uninstall IE, so even if you wanted to use another browser you couldn't simply do so.I always thought that was a silly ruling. If they prevented other browsers from being installed I would agree but saying it was anti-competitive because people would use IE and not install other browsers in my simple mind was a huge stretch.
In the end, however, it was anti-competitive behavior by EVERYBODY in the browser wars which caused problems on the WWW for 20 years, along with millions of hours of wasted developer time trying to make everything work with multiple conflicting proprietary implementations. History seems to be repeating itself just to satisfy Elon's ego, and this will do nobody any good.
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