4 ms·

I cannot believe people still argue that bundling Internet Explorer with Windows was a BadThing™. http://xkcd.com/1118/ http://xkcd.com/1118/ It's so unbeliev

by Permit 12y ago

I cannot believe people still argue that bundling Internet Explorer with Windows was a BadThing™. http://xkcd.com/1118/ http://xkcd.com/1118/ It's so unbelievably mild to the walled gardens of today's app store where Apple, Google or Microsoft could freely choose to eliminate all browser apps on their platform if they chose.

imanaccount247 12y ago
That comic does not suggest that it wasn't a bad thing. Just because worse things happen does not make less bad things into good things.
mikeash 12y ago
Apple does prohibit other browsers on their (iOS) platform. You can ship a "browser" app, but it must use their engine. You cannot bring your own. Alternate iOS browsers are basically just reskinned copies of Safari. As for the others, they're more open because they see it as a competitive advantage. That's something Microsoft didn't have to think about, since they owned 95% of the market and nobody would figure out how to break in for over a decade. I wouldn't say that bundling IE was bad. What was bad was so thoroughly crushing all of the competition that "Windows" and "PC OS" became all but synonymous, and then that lack of competition causing terrible stagnation and the terror-filled reign of IE6.
- sah2ed 12y ago
  > Apple does prohibit other browsers on their (iOS) platform. That is not true, otherwise, what do you have to say regarding Chrome for iOS [0]? [0] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chrome-web-browser-by-google/id535886823?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chrome-web-browser-by-google...
  - mikeash 12y ago
    It's a reskinned Safari, as I said.
jamiesonbecker 12y ago
That wasn't the bad thing. Killing off the IE team when it hit 90+% marketshare and not releasing ANY new browser for more than five years... yeah. that was a bad thing.

4 ms·

I cannot believe people still argue that bundling Internet Explorer with Windows was a BadThing™. http://xkcd.com/1118/ http://xkcd.com/1118/ It's so unbeliev

by Permit 12y ago

imanaccount247 12y ago
That comic does not suggest that it wasn't a bad thing. Just because worse things happen does not make less bad things into good things.
mikeash 12y ago
Apple does prohibit other browsers on their (iOS) platform. You can ship a "browser" app, but it must use their engine. You cannot bring your own. Alternate iOS browsers are basically just reskinned copies of Safari. As for the others, they're more open because they see it as a competitive advantage. That's something Microsoft didn't have to think about, since they owned 95% of the market and nobody would figure out how to break in for over a decade. I wouldn't say that bundling IE was bad. What was bad was so thoroughly crushing all of the competition that "Windows" and "PC OS" became all but synonymous, and then that lack of competition causing terrible stagnation and the terror-filled reign of IE6.
- sah2ed 12y ago
  > Apple does prohibit other browsers on their (iOS) platform. That is not true, otherwise, what do you have to say regarding Chrome for iOS [0]? [0] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chrome-web-browser-by-google/id535886823?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chrome-web-browser-by-google...
  - mikeash 12y ago
    It's a reskinned Safari, as I said.
jamiesonbecker 12y ago
That wasn't the bad thing. Killing off the IE team when it hit 90+% marketshare and not releasing ANY new browser for more than five years... yeah. that was a bad thing.