Not necessarily. There would have been one browser: Internet Explorer, and if Hacker News didn't work with it (or if Microsoft had decided to block HN) then I'd

Not necessarily. There would have been one browser: Internet Explorer, and if Hacker News didn't work with it (or if Microsoft had decided to block HN) then I'd be out of luck. And guess what? That's exactly the road Microsoft was going down when the Justice Department intervened and said that their bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows was anti-competitive. Yes, Microsoft got away with a "slap on the wrist", but I do think that decision created space for alternative browsers (like Firefox and Opera, and later Chrome) on the Windows platform. So yes, I agree with you. If Microsoft had been allowed to proceed down that path, it's conceivable that Hacker News wouldn't be around, or would exist in a different form. Now Apple is going down the path that was trod earlier by Microsoft. Yet the Justice Department today is silent.