Windows 7 to ship without IE in the EU (+ HR, CH)

[Richard]

Why are you confused?

I'm confused because MS doesn't seem to know what it wants: first it didn't want the ballot and instead created the E editions, now it agrees so much with the ballot it's killing the E editions all in the span of less than two months. They didn't even let the EU comment on the E edition proposal.

 

[Arwin]

Yeah, but what I mean is that releasing Windows without a browser included just isn't a releastic option. Microsoft may have said they would do this out of anger over losing the case and maybe in a last effort to show the EU that their idea of not including IE as default is just crazy.

Besides that though the EU did comment on the edition proposal fairly immediately. It may not have been on public record initially, but they did also put out publicly that they had disapproved of the no browser idea and agreed with Microsoft to do the ballot thing instead. At least that´s how it made the news on our aggregate site here.

 

[2senile]

Just seems, to me, that Microsoft was playing childish games. From reading a lot of forum posts about this it does seem they have managed to paint the EU Commission as the bad guys, in spite of the true information being readily available.

A question for the grey haired gurus: was Windows 95C really windows 98 with IE not "tied"?

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

The whole thing was MS sabre-rattling. They would have had more problems than anyone had they shipped without a browser given the large number of people who wouldn't know how to get to the internet without a browser installed in the first place. Can you imagine all the support calls MS would have had to deal with?

Shipping without any kind of browser in this day and age was always an idiotic stance to take, and I can only think it was mooted for the publicity it generated for Win 7.

 

[Richard]

Yeah, but what I mean is that releasing Windows without a browser included just isn't a releastic option. Microsoft may have said they would do this out of anger over losing the case and maybe in a last effort to show the EU that their idea of not including IE as default is just crazy.

Realistic or not, a bunch of MS lawyers and product managers once thought this was viable enough. BTW, this wasn't the EU's idea: Opera brought the case to the EU for the bundling of IE but the preferred solution that the EC was (is?) leaning towards was the ballot. Removing IE altogether was MS's idea.

Besides that though the EU did comment on the edition proposal fairly immediately.

Yes, I was referring to official on the record by the EC. I'm sure that MS would have had access to off-the record comments about this if they didn't decide to unilaterally announce to the four winds they were doing the E editions.

This whole process seems far too knee-jerk, even by Microsoft standards (more recently W7 testers not getting a free copy, and then MS goes back and offers them a free copy, etc.). I'm not even sure I'd qualify this whole mess as a called-bluff; it seems MS had so much to lose either way.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Yeah, there's definitely been a lessening of focus over at MS ever since Gates officially stepped down. While they seem to still be fairly well focused in some areas, in other's they've been ping-ponging all over the place.

You just don't get the feeling there's a firm hand guiding the company anymore, but rather a bunch of department heads doing their thing, and some of them being better (alot) than others.

Regards,
SB