Originally posted by qtiger
That was the second monopoly fuss. From Netscape's point of view, mind you. The whole judicial process came about because Internet Explorer came packaged with Windows, which was - to Netscape - unfair business practice, because who would go buy a competitor's product when they already had IE? IE still has immense netshare simply because people are either A) too lazy or B) too cheap to download or purchase other products.
Which points to Microsoft's licensing policies as the problem, not their
bundling of Internet Explorer. I've always been puzzled by the emphasis on
the bundling on the part of the news media, because that hasn't been the main
problem. By refusing to allow computer manufacturers to include Netscape
Communicator as the primary browser (i.e., the one that comes up by default
when you click on a bookmark or that comes up on the "first page"), Microsoft
has engaged in anti-competitive acts. But the bundling of IE itself was not the
anti-competitive act -- rather, the restrictive contracts that Microsoft places
upon its OEMs are the anti-competitive act, since they prevent said OEM's from
responding to the desires of their customers (some of whom wanted Netscape as
the primary browser).