“It’s an unexpected plea from a man who saw his own company plunge
from the Net’s heights, in large part because of the link between
Windows and IE. But Clark is worried that the proposed breakup
of the software giant doesn’t adequately guard against Microsoft
regaining overwhelming power over the Internet. Allowing the
company to put the most widely used Web browser under the same roof
as its Web services is tempting fate, he said.”
“The browser can be like the operating system,” Clark said in an
interview with CNET News.com. “The browser is to Internet services
what the operating system is to (PC) applications.”
“That raises the potential for a huge new industry of Web
services companies, from applications to entertainment, all using
IE as a base for their products. Allow Microsoft to put its Web
browser in the same company as its own Web services, such as
Microsoft Network, and the courts are simply laying the groundwork
for more market abuses, Clark warned. “This would give (Microsoft’s
applications company) an enormous amount of power,” he said.”