system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: After a monopoly lawsuit about 15 years ago, Microsoft was required to let Windows users uninstall Internet Explorer, but Apple currently blocks Mac users from uninstalling Safari, iBooks and other programs. Why is one legal but not the other?

I realize there was a lot to the lawsuit, but I'm curious about this one portion: on my Windows machine I can uninstall Internet Explorer, but on my Mac I can't uninstall Safari -- why isn't it illegal for Apple to prevent it if Microsoft was legally required to allow it?
gpt
Microsoft was requiring Internet Explorer to be included with copies of Windows being licensed to third party hardware manufacturers like Dell, HP and Gateway. If these companies didn't want Internet Explorer on the machines they shipped, then Microsoft wouldn't agree to sell them copies of Windows.

Another part of the lawsuit involved Microsoft requiring a copy of Windows to be purchased for every computer sold - even if the customer wanted it OS free or with Linux.

Apple makes both their own hardware and software, so there is no licensee being forced to bundle something they don't want to.