The NYT has an editorial by VERLYN KLINKENBORG on the beauty of the newly resurgent choice in browsers. KLINKENBORG likens the current movement to the moment people realized they didn't have to rely on AT&T for all their telephone needs. KLINKENBORG concludes that "Microsoft was wrong" when it thought it knew what people wanted from their browser.

What went wrong with Internet Explorer is a big subject. But one answer, apart from the mediocrity of the software itself, is that it sided with the commercial purposes of the Internet and not with the user.

Microsoft argued that only a browser tightly integrated with the rest of the operating system could deliver the seamless, gratifying Web-browsing experience most people hope for.

But Microsoft was wrong. These days, nobody wants to have anything tightly integrated with the Windows operating system, which has come to seem surprisingly troublesome. Windows takes a lot of care and feeding, more than most people want to give it. As for Internet Explorer, it has grown into a problem in its own right. Software developers complain about it. Ordinary users get sick of the pop-up fireworks. Even in corporate America - which finds its allegiance to Microsoft routinely tested - business users are being asked to switch from Explorer to the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox for security reasons.

If you're teaching Open Source/Content in any way this would be a great piece for students to read for a quick intro.