Their dominance over Netscape scared a lot of people. "What if Microsoft comes in and gives everything away for free to keep the OS monopoly?" was a legit fear

Their dominance over Netscape scared a lot of people. "What if Microsoft comes in and gives everything away for free to keep the OS monopoly?" was a legit fear. Gates was simultaneously a product master, and very competitive. Sometime between then and now people stopped fearing them. Maybe it was the delays in getting products out? Or false starts? Or that they just started playing nicer? Nobody is close to unseating them on the desktop, but the excitement is everywhere else.