Something that's easy to forget is that web browsers generally cost money (or were at best adware like Opera) back then. Microsoft bundling IE in gave them an a

Something that's easy to forget is that web browsers generally cost money (or were at best adware like Opera) back then. Microsoft bundling IE in gave them an advantage because users didn't have to pay additional money for a web browser in addition to windows, and so were very unlikely to bother with something like Netscape. These days browsers are considered more valuable as platforms than as products, so nobody really sells them like that anymore.