[KevinMS]

> Can someone with more of a sense of history elucidate me as to what Microsoft's motivation was around this, since IE itself was always free?

MS saw the web browser in general as a potential "platform" and direct competition to their OS monopoly and they wanted control of it by crushing competing browsers. It sounded a little crazy at the time, but years later, here we are with chromebooks and google apps and other examples that run everything in a browser.

[echelon]

We're better for that competition. It led to the rise of Apple, Google, and so many other companies.

The antitrust folks need to do the same to Google Chrome.

[nine_k]

Yes, Google was great for some time, say, first 15 years or so.

By now it's pretty ironic given the position of Chrome on the market.