I don't understand why Microsoft doesn't just include a WebKit or even Chromium fork right in the OS.
They could have > 90% browser market share again.
They could have > 90% browser market share again.
In this specific case why is "competition good" and who cares about boring when it comes to developer's productivity. Being able to code against one browser and being certain that it works properly in all browsers would be a tremendously wonderful thing for everyone.
To sacrifice that ideal vision so that things aren't "boring" doesn't seem worth it to put it kindly.
IE6 was pretty much a monopoly, how well did that go?
IE6 was closed source, and under control of one company. Webkit is open source with contributions from many major organizations.
B) That would definitely be a bad move for consumers. Monoculture is bad, and even though a fork would allow them to go their own way to some degree their existing codebase is probably more pliable to what they have in mind.