Tripe? Can you please tone down what you write? Can you not write in a low, conversational tone?
I wholeheartedly agree that a web browswer is a common tool, if not ubiquitous one. It should be part of any suite of user applications. I don't really have a problem with Microsoft bundling a web browser with their desktop environment any more than I have a problem with them bundling a paint program.
But is a web broweser part of an operating system? No. Part of an end-user application suite? Yes. A necessary application? Yes. An intergal part of the operating system? No.
I think you may be trying to blur the definition of "operating system" and "user environment." I'll say again, I don't have any problem with Microsoft packaging Internet Explorer with it's popular Windows product. But let's be clear what is an application and what is an operating system.
Internet Explorer is an application program. Where I part ways with Microsoft is when they claim that removal of Internet Explorer prevents the computer from operating. This is patently false. Microsoft has admitted that the doctored videotape presentations in court regarding this fact. If you have a copy of Windows without Internet Explorer, you still have a funcitonal operating system that is capable of running Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, printing files, editing text, etc. This machine could even be attached to the network and run a database client. Windows still has that old-fashioned ftp client that runs in a command prompt.
This is because Internet Explorer isn't the operating system, it's a web browser. It's an application.
Stop nitpicking. No one is gonna buy an OS without a shell.