Nick Bradbury disagrees with John C. Dvorak’s view that Internet Explorer is Microsoft’s biggest blunder ever:
I’ll be the first to admit that the way Microsoft embedded the browser into Windows was sloppy. I still wince when I think about the support problems I had with HomeSite that were caused by new versions of Internet Explorer updating important system files such as comctl32.dll. And don’t even get me started on the anti-competitive ways in which Microsoft negotiated OEM deals regarding Internet Explorer, or the poor design decisions that have caused so many of the security problems that Windows users face. So, if we’re talking about how the browser was embedded in Windows, I agree that Microsoft blundered. But if we’re talking about whether embedding a browser in an OS is good idea, I say that it is (and Apple says it is, too).
What Dvorak ignores is the huge number of Windows applications that have benefited from the ability to embed a web browser. Microsoft has done a great job making it easy for developers to host Internet Explorer in their software, and this has been a good thing for customers. Think of all the software that relies on an embedded IE – not just commercial web authoring tools, feed readers, email clients, etc., but also the thousands of in-house applications that need to display web pages. This isn’t a minor point: millions of people rely on software that requires an embedded web browser, and in this regard, these people benefit from having the browser included in their OS.
Word.
Ed Bott 
Nick Bradbury, while a very talented developer, has apparently never had to clean spyware/viruses/trojan horses off of desktop PCs. Repeatedly. How many millions of people have unusuable (or nearly so) PCs purely because of security problems with Internet Explorer?
Microsoft also could have created a standalone, non-integrated browser with a an embeddable component. We’d have most of the benefits Bradbury talks about without the astounding number of security problems.
Can you tell that I’m absolutely SICK of cleaning up the crap on people’s PCs? For the record, I am well aware of Windows Updates, antivirus, anti-spyware, firewalls, etc. It’s relatively easy for advanced users to keep their systems clean. Between monthly critical IE vulnerabilities, zero-day exploits, extremely convincing phishing scams, Winfixer popups and so on, it’s extremely difficult for a normal user to keep their system clean. Dvorak often spouts off to stir the pot, but he’s absolutely right about Internet Explorer.
I think Nick may also have hit on a very good reason (out of many) why I highly doubt we’ll see Apple implement the Windows API in OS X 10.5.
Email clients need a browser? I guess you have to educate me on why.
And why does it have to be “embedded”? Why can’t it just be an easily accessed engine that exists as an independent module? Like a plug in etc? The idea that developers need to hide stuff so the user cannot figure out their own computers is an idea left over the from the dark ages of mainframes IMHO.