Likely being mindful of the ever-watchful eye of the European Union, Microsofts announced its Euro version of Windows 7, affectionately and officially dubbed Windows 7 E, will not come packaged with Internet Explorer, or any other browser for that matter. Of course thats not the whole story, as OEMs will be provided free copies of IE8 to bundle themselves alongside / instead of other browser options, and consumers can pick up their own copies via CD, FTP, or retail channels. This is undoubtedly in response to the antitrust cases the EU keeps throwing Microsofts way, and while we wouldnt be surprised to see it end up on almost every European computer sold, we do wonder if this will at all speed up IEs already rapidly diminishing share in the war of web browsers.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Windows 7 E coming to Europe without Internet Explorer
Likely being mindful of the ever-watchful eye of the European Union, Microsofts announced its Euro version of Windows 7, affectionately and officially dubbed Windows 7 E, will not come packaged with Internet Explorer, or any other browser for that matter. Of course thats not the whole story, as OEMs will be provided free copies of IE8 to bundle themselves alongside / instead of other browser options, and consumers can pick up their own copies via CD, FTP, or retail channels. This is undoubtedly in response to the antitrust cases the EU keeps throwing Microsofts way, and while we wouldnt be surprised to see it end up on almost every European computer sold, we do wonder if this will at all speed up IEs already rapidly diminishing share in the war of web browsers.
