Re: Serious Question

It goes a lot deeper than just the browser.

MS were slow on the WWW uptake, but jumped in with both feet when Bill Gates realised how central it would become to PC users experience of the OS. The plan with IE was then to use the browser as a lever to prevent other OSs being considered as an option.

Essentially, if every user needed 'the internet' and 'the internet' could be made to only work properly on IE, then since IE is only available on Windows, Windows would force out *all* competition as a matter of course. IE was made a permanent part of Windows and given exclusive access to Windows-only technologies such as ActiveX to achieve that advantage.

The fact so many business and government PC are still stuck on long-obsolete versions of IE is a testament to how close MS got to achieving their ultimate goal of permanent lock-in.