>Do you think for a minute that your configuration and mine have any
>uniformity? Does deleting IE or the MSN icon from my machine compromise
>Windows' integrity?
There is a difference between you and I deleting our IE and MSN icons off the desk top (mine are all deleted, BTW) and Microsoft telling Compaq it can't do it.
When we, as end users, do it, we are exercising consumer choice.
When Microsoft tells Compaq it can't do it, other things being equal, Microsoft is arguably enhancing competition among browsers by ensuring that we consumers, and not Compaq, will have that choice to make. (Please recall that Netscape had 80 percent plus market share at that time -- and may still have close to that now in spite of Microsoft's tactics).
Of course, other things in the real world are not always equal. If, for example, Compaq could only have put one icon on the desktop, it might make sense to say that it, not Microsoft, should make the decision as to which one goes there.
Trying to resolve issues like this is what the Rule of Reason is for. |
