The end conclusion was "having a single superdominant proprietary browser is stupid." This probably extends to other communications software like productivity apps.

The only reason the Web exists as it does now is because of Firefox. Even with the ruling, Microsoft put IE into maintenance mode and disbanded the team once IE6 won. The only reason IE7 came about was because Netscape opened their source code, and eventually firefox started really gaining popularity. And that was only because it was a foundation and volunteers, not a proprietary business (otherwise it would have died like the others.)

So you can thank the Netscape and Mozilla folks that the modern web isn't still IE6 with the state of the art being the marquee tag, ActiveX, and VBSctipt/ancient JavaScript.