The Rampantly Unofficial Linus Torvalds FAQ 16731

Linux is late to the market, John, and does not provide the total coverage that you imply. At the very least it arrived after substantial investments have been made by Windows users in Windows compatible software and even in the experience gained over years of use. As such it is not an exact replacement and so requires substantial realignment of a user's efforts to achieve a comparable result. IE was 100% compatible with Netscape, at least in theory, and interchangeable by the user for the task of browsing most websites. Linux does not run Windows apps in a native fashion without a whole lot of messing around which the great majority of the users are not willing to do. As such, linux and the other OSS programs available do not cover the same waterfront and so cannot be likened to the IE-IIS vs Netscape situation.

IE is free, John, and so is Firefox. BTW, does Firefox expose APIs that can be used for the same things as the WinInetAPIs? The total purpose of IE is not just to browse the internet, it is to provide Windows apps with facilities for making FTP and HTTP connections to remote sites as well. Our products use it for auto updates and product registration and the like. We need that.