Windows 7 to ship without Internet Explorer in Europe

[Cabalo]

they must put google chrome instead of IE

[tesco]

To solve the no-browser problem, I liked the USB suggestion but you can always keep an extra partition to keep those necessary files you're always using and re-using.

The average user does not have a usb stick with a web browser on it though...

[Qlix]

Finally. Now people will hopefully start using a good browser for a change... like Firefox. Chrome is good but I can't use my addons in it. :<

[VinX]

FireFox imo, should do a alliance with MS to put it as the default browser .. rather than crap IE

[mr-soul]

Yaaaaay Hate IE so I could not be happier

[codec]

I think it's absolute crap. MS should be allowed to bundle IE and Media Player with Windows. I'm sorry but I don't agree with IE being removed from Windows.

Why should they. They sell and market the operating system as an operating system. Browsers and media players are apps that run on top of that operating system. By pre-installing there browser and media player its an unfair advantage over the rest of the market as new users will just familiarise themselves with whats already there and those that dont have a bad opinion on IE and media player will simply not be bothered to try anything else.

While this is maybe true, I rather prefer a full OS.
Even if I just use the IE to download Firefox, but how are you able to download another browser if there aren't any??
Mac OS and Linux (and all others) are also shipped with there browsers. Linux => Firefox, Mac OS => Safari, so why should MS not ship _there_ system with IE?
They will never put other browsers on there system because of license fees they had to pay for sure.
So now we get a castrated OS, which even makes it difficult for the enduser to download something.

[Tutela]

when u install windows 7 it asks you which browser do u want

[manu1991]

While this is maybe true, I rather prefer a full OS.
Even if I just use the IE to download Firefox, but how are you able to download another browser if there aren't any??
Mac OS and Linux (and all others) are also shipped with there browsers. Linux => Firefox, Mac OS => Safari, so why should MS not ship _there_ system with IE?
They will never put other browsers on there system because of license fees they had to pay for sure.
So now we get a castrated OS, which even makes it difficult for the enduser to download something.

For downloading firefox you can always ftp to mozilla.org and download , and if they put firefox they dont have to pay any license fees

Also linux per se doesnt come with any browsers , some distros do

[codec]

For downloading firefox you can always ftp to mozilla.org and download , and if they put firefox they dont have to pay any license fees

For you and me yes, but for the generic user, who doesn't even know what the command prompt is?
About the fees, I wouldn't be so sure.
If something sells, everyone wants a piece of the cake.

Also linux per se doesnt come with any browsers , some distros do

You know, I use Linux as a synonym for distros, but you are totally right here.

[lynx]

All they need to do is include something like Wget to download a minimal installer. Wget can be run from a Windows shell script so there's no problem with that either. I suspect that Windows 7 probably already has something built in so they wouldn't even need Wget. Once the installer has been successfully received it can download the main application.

So all Microsoft need to do is write a simple script to download this installer. The name and location of the installer would be passed as the operational parameters. Other software suppliers just need to create a shortcut with the name and installer location included.

That way there's no need for the end user to have to do anything other than click on a shortcut.

The main problem I see is one of security. I can easily envisage such shortcuts being hijacked so that users end up downloading a trojan in addition to the desired end product. There are probably some very good, simple ways of preventing this sort of hijack, but this is Micro$oft.