You're correct that IE being bundled to the operating system was a bad idea, but it was also a technically bad thing to do.
Having been forced to suffer through Windows NT from beta forward, I remember how this all went down vividly:
Internet Explorer was NOT added to the operating system because it was a good technical idea, they did so so that they could MAKE the argument that "We can't unbundle the browser because it's part of the operating system" in rebuttal to anti-trust concerns. They were unfortunately ultimately sucessful with this strategy
At the time they literally "staple-gunned" the browser's components into the operating system and what had been a reasonably stable operating system become completely destabilized. It was an absolute nightmare, and remnants of this kind of forced interdependency pop up all the time in whatever version of windows you happen to be running today. From installation issues, performance degradatation, to DLL conflicts and now a host of DRM tie-ins, this type of "business case" software crow barring is the worst kind of thing for us, the actual consumers.
If I could punt windows entirely today (I can't because my work requires it) I would do so in a New York minute.
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You're correct that IE being bundled to the operating system was a bad idea, but it was also a technically bad thing to do.
Having been forced to suffer through Windows NT from beta forward, I remember how this all went down vividly:
Internet Explorer was NOT added to the operating system because it was a good technical idea, they did so so that they could MAKE the argument that "We can't unbundle the browser because it's part of the operating system" in rebuttal to anti-trust concerns. They were unfortunately ultimately sucessful with this strategy
At the time they literally "staple-gunned" the browser's components into the operating system and what had been a reasonably stable operating system become completely destabilized. It was an absolute nightmare, and remnants of this kind of forced interdependency pop up all the time in whatever version of windows you happen to be running today. From installation issues, performance degradatation, to DLL conflicts and now a host of DRM tie-ins, this type of "business case" software crow barring is the worst kind of thing for us, the actual consumers.
If I could punt windows entirely today (I can't because my work requires it) I would do so in a New York minute.