The removal of IE as a free, downloadable software application could have a profound effect on the Web and the development of Web standards. One possibility is that its removal could benefit makers of stand-alone browsers, such as Norwegian software company Opera Software (which charges for one version of its browser and gives away an ad-supported one) or Netscape, a unit of AOL. "My take is that not distributing IE without Windows is good news for us," said Jon von Tetzchner, chief executive of Opera. "This means that a lot of companies are left with the choice between using Opera and paying Microsoft a hefty fee for a Windows upgrade that (makes obsolete) their computers. In the current market, many companies are trying to cut their costs, and a lot of them have no compelling reason to upgrade Windows." But the future of Netscape, as well as the AOL-funded Mozilla open-source project, appears clouded, after the media giant's rapprochement with Microsoft, in which AOL threw the weight of its subscriber base behind IE. Many speculate that Netscape's days as an AOL unit are now numbered. A second possibility is that IE has gained such an overwhelming share of the market, as the de facto browsing standard, that Web surfers will be compelled to buy Windows -- or upgrade Windows -- in order to satisfactorily access important Web sites. Despite the efforts of standards groups such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), of which Microsoft is an active member, many Web sites are still coded to work with IE, rather than the standards that IE and other browsers support. Some sites explicitly state that their tools and applications work "best" or "only" with IE. And Microsoft's heavily trafficked MSN Web site has been locked in a high-profile battle with Opera over oddities in the way MSN renders in the Norwegian browser. Microsoft declined to answer most specific questions on this story, but the company representative said Microsoft would "ensure that all current IE users will have access to updates in the future." Microsoft would not clarify whether that meant there would be continued updates to IE for Windows on a stand-alone basis, or for the Mac, and if so, what it meant when it promised to end production of stand-alone IE. Microsoft did seem to suggest that however it plans to take care of existing users of stand-alone IE, their options would be even less certain once the company's next version of Windows comes out. "If you're using IE now, for Mac or Windows, you will have access to any appropriate updates," said the Microsoft representative. "There will be continued innovation and improvement. For the near and immediate future, customers will have access to IE. It's not going anywhere as a product. What happens in the Longhorn timeframe -- it's too early to discuss." The antitrust angle
The degree to which Microsoft's browser and operating system were linked became a central point of contention in the government's antitrust lawsuit against the company. The government sued Microsoft in 1998, alleging that the software giant had used its monopoly power in desktop operating systems to develop a chokehold on browser software. A federal judge agreed and ordered the company to be broken up into separate application and operating system companies to prevent future abuses. That order was later overturned on appeal, and Microsoft eventually worked out a settlement that leaves it free to develop the OS as it sees fit. In its defence against the charge it illegally tied the browser to its monopoly operating system, Microsoft argued that the operating system could not function properly without the Web browser. Now Microsoft has flipped its argument around, claiming that future versions of the browser won't be able to function properly without the OS. "Legacy OSes have reached their zenith with the addition of IE 6 SP1 (Service Pack 1, a collection of bug fixes and updates to the browser)," Countryman said. "Further improvements to IE will require enhancements to the underlying OS." Antitrust experts said that because the appeals court had found, on a technicality, that the government had failed to prove IE commanded a monopoly, Microsoft's move to remove stand-alone IE from the market wouldn't run afoul of any restrictions placed on the company by the courts. The courts forbade Microsoft from refusing to offer a version of Windows without IE, antitrust lawyers pointed out. But the company remains free to offer IE only bundled with a $199 copy of Windows. "They have to let OEM licensees, HP or whoever, put Netscape or another browser on the other computer and have it work with Windows," said Richard Liebeskind, a partner with Pillsbury Winthrop, who worked for both the Federal Trade Commission and the US Department of Justice on antitrust issues. "I don't know that there's any obligation to make (Internet) Explorer, because it's not the product Microsoft has been found to have monopolised. The government lost that part of the case -- Microsoft got off on a technicality." Perhaps paradoxically, the removal from the market of IE as a separate product makes reality conform with Microsoft's long-time defence against charges that it tied the browser and the OS. "Obviously, having a separate product out there prolonged the argument that there were two products that would form the basis of an unlawful tie," said Ostrau. "This gets rid of one pesky aspect of the case. It brings to the inevitable conclusion what Microsoft had in mind all along. And it won't be the last time that this occurs. Windows is like Los Angeles -- it likes to annex a lot of outlying areas over time." Asked where another stand-alone Microsoft application might disappear from the market, Ostrau advised, "Watch what happens with the media player."
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