Okay maybe that’s an overstatement, but then again maybe not.  Opera has filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft over Internet Explorer bundling and (this is the part that I like) for holding back web developers from making cross browser programs “by not following accepted web standards”  Their argument seems to be that developers are choosing to code to ensure that their work renders in Internet Explorer since Internet Explorer is the dominant browser. 
Arguing that bundling Internet Explorer limits choice is somewhat ironic to me.  People are free to choose their own browser which they can conveniently download by using that bundled version of Internet Explorer.  Clearly Opera doesn’t want MS to ship without a browser because finding Opera would be that much (much much) harder.  So, they seem to want MS to ship with multiple browsers.  If it ships with an MS OS then end user perception will be that MS is responsible for quality.  This is different than giving the user the ability to choose different search providers.  This would be an installed app situation.  Not something that is done lightly.
I’ve tried Firefox and Opera.  Frankly I found the integration with video sites to be lacking in both.  I expect that Opera will say that this is because the sites are being coded to IE.  Are they saying that IE should only support web standards?  If coding to IE provides the best user experience then code to IE.  I want the best user experience.  As a test I loaded MTV.com in both IE7 and Opera 9.24.  I’ll take the IE 7 experience any day.  Here is what they looked like.   Click the thumbnails to see the larger images.

IE7

MTV in IE7_thumbnail

Opera

MTV in Opera 9.24_thumbnail

Developers are free to (and do) make recommendations to their users along the lines of “This site is best viewed with…. and a link to download a browser.  They’re also free to do a browser detect and redirect users to a “This site is not supported on your browser” or “Here is the poor experience IE version of our site” if they so choose.  If enough end users show their displeasure by downloading those other browsers and the balance shifts away from IE then MS would undoubtedly take notice.  Running to the courts is sooo last century.  Compete in the marketplace with a more compelling product. 
Should IE support web standards?  Sure.  Should MS be forced to support web standards?  I don’t think so.  Consumer adoption should drive product development.  Should IE be limited to only support web standards.  Of course not. 

Limiting products to only support web standards would lead to less compelling user experiences and less rapid development of new types of experiences and business opportunities.