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Comment by chris_wot | Hacker News Reader

They were basically trying to figure out how to "integrate" the browser into Windows. But there were vast amounts of technology based around or that used ActiveX - ADO, ASP, ASF, you name it - Microsoft created it. Besides that, there were a lot of standards they were integrating.

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At some points, Microsoft had two teams working on different versions of IE, in order to leapfrog Netscape. The extra team developed the "componentized" version where the browser was built from re-usable objects, where Netscape's code was still a rambling mess. (This helped Microsoft win the AOL business: it used IE even after it bought Netscape.)

The US DoJ's Janet Reno was a major factor. She forced Microsoft to sign a Consent Decree (1995?) that prevented Microsoft from tying separate products to Windows but allowed it to provide integrated improvements. The DoJ followed up with an anti-trust suit (on Netscape's behalf) over browser tying.

Microsoft won the browser case by 2-1 on appeal. However, all this bloodletting may have been a factor in Microsoft putting off the next browser, which eventually appeared in Vista. Which was late, following the Longhorn debacle, which prolonged XP's life, which enabled IE6 to get entrenched, which caused web designers so much pain.

The world might be a better place if the DoJ hadn't interfered, but we'll never know....

If you haven't already, you should definitely read "How Microsoft Lost The API War" (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html) by Joel Spolsky. One of my favorite articles of all time -- it speaks to some of the things you raised... specifically how Microsoft intentionally let IE6 development come to a halt because it was no longer strategically beneficial to them (not because the DoJ interference made them stop). Also hints at the idea that the stability of IE6 for a while actually created a good environment for innovation in the web app space to take place because things we're changing all the time.

Great point, I'd missed that. Even though I'm a huge Spolsky fan, read the whole website, bought the book, interviewed the man etc ;-)

Otherwise, I'd have picked his first Bill Gates review as one of my favorite articles of all time...

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