I have 2 Win98 boxes with NO IE on them!!!
For those of you that can't seem to remember WIN95, The A version DID NOT have IE it was in the Plus Pack, it had to installed from the Plus Pack. The B version IE could be removed. It was not until the C version that MS bound IE to the OS.
Don't give me any crap about IE being a part of the OS. It was became a part of the OS BECAUSE of the Anti-Trust trial.
MS thumbed there nose at the court and bundled it with the OS.
With each and every version of Windows that comes out MS just bundles more and more MS crap with it.
I had a problem creep up in my IE 6.0 browser on XP Professional, which required I uninstall and re-install IE 6.0 to correct. So to say that the browser can't be removed from the OS may not be entirely correct.
Granted, I did not do an inventory of executables and runtime dll's to see if IE was totally removed, but it was unregistered from add/remove programs and off the menu's and taskbar.
Windows common Setup program is embedded in IE, so some components of IE may need to stay permanently resident, but I don't think the entire Browser needs to be there.
Hmm...maybe that can be today's homework. I was looking for something to do with my last vacation day....
There are a great number of similarities between the IBM Antitrust Case (prosecuted by the government 1969 - 1982) and the Microsoft Antitrust Case. They are both cases involving an industry that moves extremely rapidly when compared to the glacial movements of the judicial system. In IBM's case the government proseuted the case for so long that the industry moved from mainframes to personal computers. As clones of the IBM PC eroded Big Blue's share of the market the government was forced to recognize the basis of the case were moot and unilaterally dropped the case in 1982. To sum it all up, against IBM the Justice Department was trying to hit a moving target, but the target had moved so much there was no point in shooting anymore, so they dropped the case. Many lawyers see a lot of the same problems for the government against Microsoft as the final settlement continues to be elusive as indicated by this latest Microsoft position.
NOT if you call their file viewing window explorer, too...
Which..... it is!