Microsoft Bundling Practices

In this article, “Is
Microsoft Infected>?”, Rick
Aristotle Munarriz makes the point that Symantec and
McAfee should feel threatened by the fact that Microsoft is
giving away free virus inoculations for Windows and undercutting the very business
model of the virus protection companies.

In an earlier European Commission
ruling, it was ordered that MS remove MS Media Player as an
operating system component of Windows.

Since the days of 16 bit Windows and Bash shell UNIX, I have wondered
what is appropriate for OS bundling.  On one hand, anything that is included
is good for the consumer, but each add-on can undercut the free market by devaluing
a 3rd party’s value proposition.

In other words, Netscape may be a better browser (debatable), but why
would I bother installing it when IE is already on my machine?  This is a debate
as old as Microsoft and
the point of this post is to gather some opinion.

Do you think there is appropriate rule of thumb to use when making a
decision for OS bundling?  What is it?  Why?