This was a result of the antitrust case sun and novell brought before the EU comission. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Microsoft_compet...

It got us windows without media player (which nobody used), the browser ballot (which everyone endured) and a requirement that all their server protocols be documented sufficiently for competitors to implement the same service (which we all benefited from to a large degree). http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-04-70_en.htm?local...