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I know people who are pissed because Microsoft bundled in their own TCP/IP stack, which killed the companies that were selling TCP/IP stacks for Windows. When

• jacquesm 12y ago
  Network support has been an OS feature since before Microsoft even existed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Yes, there are people that probably would have preferred Peter Tattam's company to be bought by MS. (It was shareware, see thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2282875 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2282875). But it definitely wasn't an obligation. Very few would argue that an OS has to have a browser to be functional. Just like very few would argue that all networking should be done in a user space process not part of the operating system.
  • mpyne 12y ago
    An OS doesn't have to have a file browser either, yet no one cried antitrust when Windows 95 bundled Windows Explorer instead of forcing people to buy Norton Commander. This whole argument is kind of silly anyways since it's leaving out intent, which is a very important contextual part of evaluating the action of a person or entity. Seeing emails showing MS trying to deliberately get web developers hooked on a "more standards-compliant" IE and then locking those same devs in is a much different thing than MS honestly wanting people to have a decent default software base to go with Windows, even if both strategies end up in practice with "IE 4 preinstalled".