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by furgooswft13 2897 days ago
> It opened competition in browsers (and we now have Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Brave, etc.)

MS all but ceasing development on IE after version 6 is what opened competition in browsers, not any government action. Remember from IE4 to 6 before Firefox was released Internet Explorer really was the best browser out there. MS used their Windows monopoly to aid distribution and their huge piles of cash to make it free (vs paid-for Netscape), but it wasn't like it was crap software that was only being used because MS force-fed it to everybody. At least not until they (probably intentionally) let it wither and die and Firefox and then Chrome ate their lunch.
3 comments
reitanqild 2897 days ago
Was about to disagree but on closer reading I agree.

I'll still say the browser choice thing was a good thing as it spread the message, and helped get a critical mass of users to use other browser so that web developers had to design cross browser solutions for a while until they got lazy again and started only designing for Chrome.

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repolfx 2897 days ago
Is there any evidence the EU's mandated browser choice thing had that effect at all? IIRC what moved the needle on Firefox was huge grassroots campaigns, and what moved the needle on Chrome was advertising it on the Google home page. I've never heard any argument that the Windows choice box made any impact.
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slededit 2897 days ago
> (probably intentionally)

It was intentional, the even disbanded the development team. Even in the mid 90s it was obvious to everyone that web apps would be the future. If web apps were the future then win32 didn't matter and their grip on computing would be lost. IMO the mistake they made was not doubling down and turning IE into the next windows. Instead they tried to bring win32 to the web.

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marichards 2897 days ago
IE was terrible for anyone not using Windows. They encouraged ActiveX and didn't keep to web specs. Imagine if they'd kept their monopoly and we'd all had to stay on Vista and Windows Mobile because it was the only way to browse the web. Flash would still be a thing. The iPhone could have failed because it couldn't load most websites. We might still have keypads on our phones.
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