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And why not? IE6 was released in August 2001! Its competition was something like Netscape 4.8. Mozilla was barely alpha, and not really usable yet. In this light, IE6 was a good browser, better than any competition back then. Of course. IE6 was mostly irrelevant few years later, but that wasn't because it was crappy browser, but because it was simply obsolete (but without a replacement from Microsoft).

Microsoft decided to kill IE, with 6 being the final version, in order to integrate the browser into Windows. Five years and a few major court cases later and they changed their tune and began work on IE7.

Wow, this is very interesting if true. Is there public information backing up the assertion that Microsoft wanted to kill IE as we know it and integrate it into Windows?

I heard it from Molly Holzschlag during a presentation at Microsoft Mix last week. There were members of the IE team all over the place and I think someone would have called her on it if it wasn't true. Or maybe Microsoft leaked the fake story as a cover for an outdated browser :)

It was fairly well publicized in the plans for Longhorn. Quick Google search produced this, probably not most authoritative, but still, source: http://news.cnet.com/2100-1032_3-1011859.html

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