
Ask HN: Apple and Google browser/OS bundling today vs. Microsoft circa 2000 - edtrudeau
Why are Apple and Google not in trouble today for antitrust violations the way Microsoft was over a decade ago?<p>Microsoft bundled IE with Windows, in the same way Apple bunldes Safari with OS X and iOS, and Google bundles Chrome with Android. Is it because Microsoft had larger market share? Or have the barriers to installing alternative browsers been lowered? If the latter, then was the decision against Microsoft a mistake in retrospect?
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WorldMaker
I think there has been a shift in recognition of what a browser is: at the
time Microsoft added IE into Windows, Netscape was still a relatively large
company with a vested interest and browsers were seen as commercial products.
Microsoft argued that the future of the browser was not a standalone product
but an operating system component that would be a requirement for an operating
system moving forward.

I do believe that Microsoft was ahead of the curve in that forethought, and
that in retrospect Microsoft was right and the world was changing out from
under Netscape's feet. But I also don't blame people for questioning that at
the time, the internet was young and nascent then and we were still feeling
out which "apps" on it, such as the web, would be ubiquitous services that
everyone would need access to.

(I'm much more angry about the similar XP-era decision that anti-virus was not
a core operating system component, to appease some greedy companies, and I'm
glad the statute of limitations on that mistake has passed. Go, go, Windows
Defender.)

