> MS requring the browser to be included in the install is a small requirement for the freedom to run Windows on any computer you choose.
Yes, but M$'s utilities have always come after someone else's utilities. DosShell was bundled with DOS 5.0 (or was it 4?), when all the people I knew at the time were using either Central Point's PcTools or PcShell, or Peter Norton's Norton Commander. Ever heard of someone using DosShell? M$ bought Mirror.com from Central Point.
For disk defragmentation I've always been using CP's Compress, until M$ bought a (trimmed) version of Defrag from Norton. Deltree was introduced six years after Vlada Kostiæ wrote Xrd. Several keyboard driver generators were well known before M$ got the code page support to run properly and account for sufficient number of code pages. Quarterdeck had several good solutions on XMS/EMS memory management and multitasking far before M$ did.
My point is that M$ is not running ahead: it just looks what holes exist in their OSes, and then buys or replicates the most proficient solution. Never mind if M$'s solution is not the best - it will sell, or at least the competitively better solutions won't sell, because M$'s solutions will be bundled with the OS.
The same may, or may not, apply to browsers. Again, M$ is forcing its own solution for a market where it came in after seeing what others do.
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>What if Microsoft announced their new Windows 98 OS would only be licensed to run on new their new line of WinPC computers? Well I do know that Janet Reno would definitely freak out and Bill Gates would still be the richest man in the world.
What would you say if your OS refused to run on Quantum disks and allowed only Seagate? Browser is surely necessary, but why just IE? Any good reason, except the size of M$?
p.s. This message was written on March 22nd, but couldn't connect in the meantime. I brought an OKI laser from office to do some testing (printing from FPD2.6 to a PCL printer while not touching any of the .frx files with embedded ESC/P2 escape sequences, and have it look as much the same as possible). It wouldn't print - spool32 permanently GPFed, or printed blank pages. Then I tried to reinstall everything, to no avail. Tried to install Memphis beta3, with the same result. Uninstalled it, but then it didn't want to keep my internet passwords, so I couldn't log in. Had to play for some ten days or more with it, and finally ended up deleting almost all the Windows files, starting with registry and ini files, including all the .dll files which I couldn't positively define as parts of some benign app. Finally I managed to connect. I've reinstalled Office, and yet have to reinstall VFP... had fun for two weeks. It still doesn't print.
