"Their browser is too tied to the OS."
During the debates surrounding the anti-trust trial MS argued that that, browser tied to the OS, is a feature. They were close to saying that the browser is the OS.
During the debates surrounding the anti-trust trial MS argued that that, browser tied to the OS, is a feature. They were close to saying that the browser is the OS.
It wouldn't be a problem if Microsoft had been using the 'browser' as an integral part of the OS for displaying information etc. However, Microsoft is using IE as an integral part of the OS.
I remember back in my days of using MSN messenger it was easy as a drop of a hat to cause a BSOD by disabling IE and clicking the link in MSN to my hotmail inbox. It would try to launch IE, freak out, crash MSN, then Explorer and then you'd get a BSOD. From what I've heard, this problem has somehow gotten worse.
No one would care if the internal documentation browser wasn't updated.
I think they were the IE engine for the main explorer folder view in Windows 98 - all the active desktop and custom folder backgrounds and theming the sidebar which slowly vanished in XP and onwards was MS-HTML and CSS based.
It wasn't a stupid design decision, it was just a design decision.
In contrast the HTML on the web is changing very quickly and therefore the browser needs frequent updates to keep up.