Microsoft will release Windows 7 without ‘Internet Explorer 8′ in Europe
Microsoft has recently announced that Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s self-owned web browser, which currently commands over 65% market share of worldwide browser usage will NOT be bundled with Windows 7, the next upcoming version of Windows operating system, which is scheduled to launch on October 22,2009.
Such a step has resulted due to the Anti-trust elegations on Microsoft by European commision. Microsoft has previously been fined a sum of $1.2bn by the European Commission for anti-competitive behaviour concerned with pre-installing Windows Media Player with Windows OS and now, when the same situation arrived for ‘Internet explorer’, Microsoft has taken a defensive approach, by announcing exclusion of the latest version of Internet Explorer(IE8) from the default software applications bundled with ‘yet to be launched’ Windows 7 OS.
While announcing the following news, Dave Heiner, deputy general counsel for Microsoft remarked…
“We’re committed to making Windows 7 available in Europe at the same time that it launches in the rest of the world, but we also must comply with European competition law as we launch the product,”
There was another suggestion(more preferred) from European Commision that Microsoft may offer all major web browsers as an alternative for the end user and let the user choose any of the provided web browsers. This particular option was well supported by other browser manufacturers such as Mozilla(makers of Firefox), Google(makers of Chrome), Opera and Apple(makers of Safari).
But Microsoft has finally taken an alternative step (excluding IE8 from Windows 7) to comply with the European commision’s Anti-trust concerns. As Europe is possibly the biggest market for Microsoft, it was quite an expected step from Microsoft before the tentative launch of Windows 7 but this has to be seen if European Commision quotes this action by Microsoft as ‘Insufficient’ and asks for reconsidering ‘Multiple Browsers’ option instead.
I don’t care what the European commision says.
I want Windows 7 WITH Inter Explorer 8 – and I want it IN the operating system where it belongs, along with Windows Media Player.
What’s next, Car companies being to taken to court because they only offer tyres from one manufacturer? All this Anti-trust bull is getting on my nerves.
Microsoft are producing a full Operating Suite, not just just an Operating System. Once Windows is up and running so are you.
Well Europe, if Microsoft are not allowed to include Internet Explorer, I’ll NOT be buying the product, I’m NOT paying for an in-complete system.
If you’re going to buy a new laptop/Netbook/PC, chances are that you will get IE8 installed.(courtesy manufacturers). Otherwise, you can always download IE8 from the web itself anytime you want…Don’t feel so bothered about this decision.
Anybody who wants to run Mozilla on XP/Vista simply downloads it from the web. In case of Windows 7, if you feel the same urge for IE8, you can do the same(download from the web)
All this is about and for Web’s well being…
If someone wants to download Incompetent Explorer 8,
well download it. but lets stop forcing people using
that crappy piece of software and therefore stupidying
users by making them believe it is the only one web
browser…
what for? Most of web applications cannot be made the
way the should be… or we, web-developers, must make
websites two or even three times, full of patches and
workarounds for them to be compatible with that “browser”
which is pitifully the most used one.
I would be so happy if they did the same for America…
Some day the web has to be fixed.
@Mario Agree with you.
I’m pretty much impressed with the stability of Windows 7. It is better than windows Vista which hogs my memory and cpu.*`’