signor_john - 4:26 pm on Dec 17, 2009 (gmt 0)

10 years was a little long and the violation was more relevant when you had to get a browser in addition to your OS on an extra CD, because downloading a browser would have taken hours.

A browser on a CD? I remember downloading Mosaic, Cello, and early versions of IE and Netscape on a dial-up connection. No big deal. Browser downloads were smaller in the mid-1990s than they are today.

It's also worth noting that Microsoft's "violation" (by making the browser part of the operating system) was hailed as a technical innvoation in some quarters. Remember the Windows Active Desktop [en.wikipedia.org]? It wasn't a success, but the idea seemed good to many people at the time, and it went hand in hand with Microsoft's race to embrace the Internet with the launch of Windows 95 and IE. (Back in 1995, Microsoft was training employees and contractors in HTML at every opportunity: I knew a guy who made good money by teaching HTML classes on the Microsoft campus.)