On Friday 10 Jul 2009, Sean Gibbins wrote: > "You may have seen in the news a few weeks back that, in order for > Europe to get Windows 7 at the same time as the global launch on 22 > October, Windows 7 will have to be shipped without Internet Explorer. > So, when you buy a new computer, you will not have a browser as part of > the operating system. I would be interested to hear your views on this > so please email me." > > What a peculiar question for a representative of a major corporation to > send out to their customers! I don't know precisely how any rulings > within the EEC affect Microsoft's ability to ship browsers with Windows > 7, but it seems highly unlikely to me that is the case as implied. We > are referred to a blog [1] for clarification, and it would appear that > the summary of the situation is that the bundling of IE is the issue (or > more accurately perhaps, the integration), and that it can be overcome > by simply following the same model as the competition does and making > various browsers available for users to install once the OS is up and > running.
Having spent many years (and convinced the DoJ) that Windows won't work without IE, Microsoft are now saying that W7 will. In XP and earlier variants, this may have been true, since parts of IE run in kernel space. Notwithstanding from the obvious security issues with this, it gave them a good excuse to avoid the unbundling requirements. Presumably, the developers of W7 have managed to separate the browser from the OS, so that MS can 'offer' this. Whether or not the dangerous parts will really be removed, and not just the entry in the Programs menu, has been the subject of some debate since this announcement. Personally, I don't think this will fly as a means to satisfy the EU that they've their changed behaviour. However, the current commissioner, Neelie Kroes (http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/kroes/index_en.html), is moving on shortly and maybe that well known MS supporter Charlie McCreevy (http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/mccreevy/index_en.htm) will get the job next. > The statement 'you will not have a browser as part of the operating > system' is interesting too, since there are /many/ things that won't > ship as part of Windows 7 that I have come to expect as standard with > most Linux distros, so why is this suddenly an issue? Doubtless there > won't be a spreadsheet application or database manager shipping with > Windows 7 either, so why aren't we invited to debate this? Despite the obvious fact that Linux comes with more applications than any one person could ever need, I always fail to impress my Windows loving acquaintances that this is worth having. However, If there isn't a browser, they'll think they've been cheated. -- Terry Coles 64 bit computing with Kubuntu Linux -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Wednesday 2009-08-05 20:00 Dorset LUG: http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ Chat: http://www.mibbit.com/?server=irc.blitzed.org&channel=%23dorset List info: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dorset
