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Sunday, June 14, 2009

Browser Wars: No IE in Windows 7 for Europe

With the antitrust concern by European regulators, Microsoft will be stripping out Internet Explorer in their Windows 7 release in Europe. This is in-line with the concern that Microsoft is having an unfair advantage in their browser in integrating it with their Operating Systems. Microsoft said that it will be offering another version of Windows 7 in Europe with no IE. Pc manufacturers however can also add it back depending on their choice and Microsoft will also be providing a separate IE8 installation for free for users who want to install it. 

This action is also a surprise for Microsoft had been arguing before that IE is a part of their Operating System and it can't be easily stripped out. But competing browsers are not happy with it. This action is only for Europe and Microsoft already stated that it will not strip out IE in any other region. This action will only cover Windows 7 and not any previous Windows version. Aside from that, pc manufacturers also have the option to have IE in their release or not. With Microsoft resources, they can easily have a deal with manufacturers to include IE. Other browsers don't have the resources to do so except for Google. Competing browsers said that this will not restore true competition and users should be given the option to choose a browser the first time they access the Internet.

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