Opera's problems caused by Opera not MS!
This entire situation was caused by Opera's whining to the EC...and the EC being the bunch of self-righteous idiots they are, went off and sided with the European company.
Opera's problems though were never MS, but themselves. They continued to charge for a browser when everyone else’s browsers were free. That was there choice; it was not forced on them by MS. When after 6 years of charging they decided to finally let it go free, they have less than 1% market share. It was nothing but their own stupid decisions.
The big issue on this is once the EC gets away with it once, it will occur again. Where else would Opera like to go? iPhone users should get it on first boot shouldn't they? Apple will be next in sight once the precedents been set. However, what is next after that? Google under fire as it is better than the stupid EC funded anti-American search engine I cannot even name these days.
Personally, I do like how the beta for 7 handled things. Yes we have IE8 pre-installed, but what you do then is run off, download your chosen browser, then disable IE. Done and dusted. The EC is doing nothing for the consumer, which they claim they are, they are doing this for themselves once more, and yet again looking for a way to extract money from the US, and through money grabbing court cases try to inflate a European product over the place it should be.
I am not saying Opera is bad, just that no one caused the position that are in other than themselves, and whining to the EC about it quite frankly is wrong.