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Microsoft Will Ship Windows 7 in Europe With IE Unbundled
jimmi_hendrix was one of several people to note CNET's report that 'Microsoft plans to remove Internet Explorer from the versions of Windows 7 that it ships in Europe, CNET News has learned. Reacting to antitrust concerns expressed by European regulators, Microsoft plans to offer a version in Europe that has the browser removed. Computer makers would then have the option to add the browser back in, ship another browser or ship multiple browsers, according to a confidential memo that was sent to PC makers and seen by CNET News." There's also a report at Ars Technica.
Once again the EU rears its protectionist head. Free trade? A joke to them. They can't help but skewer a successful American company in some way, either by subsidizing the development of their own competition, or, using their maze of regulations to try and screw them.
It's time to raise tariffs on the EU, and put to bed this foolish free trade thing once and for all.
There is no such thing as free trade.
This is my sig.
"It was a sales flop."
My god are you stupid. You actually don't have a fucking clue about what is going on between the EU and Microsoft.
Hint, dumbfuck, it's about OEMs. Not consumer sales.
The EU is ridiculous. I sure hope they are at the very least fair with their insanity, and force Apple to remove Safari from OSX. They might as well force MS and Apple to remove their desktop search features, Instant messengers, and programming APIs.
Hell why not force Microsoft to unbundle NTFS and to use non Microsoft file systems.
Why even let microsoft even write an OS at all? Some one else may want to one day and MS stands in the way.
sigh.
Fucking EU is ridiculous sometimes.
If they were convicted monopolists, go ahead!
This shouldnt be marked as Troll. He's right.
Cars come with steering wheels. That doesnt stop you from buying an after market Momo steering wheel and putting it on your car.
Having IE come with windows, does not prevent the choice of installing another web browser. I've been proving that for years by running firefox.
When will APPLE be forced to OPEN up their OS to non Apple hardware? Will the EU force Apple to unbundle Safari or searchlight?
When will FAIR BE FAIR?
This is just bullshit as usual without any basis in reality.
Thank you, another wise person who is marked as Troll.
You're right. This singles out Microsoft and lets Apple and Linux off the hook.
OSX only runs on "apple hardware" which to me screams more injustice than IE coming with windows. We all know Apple's hardware is the same shit in all of our windows pcs.
Safari is bundled...
Itunes is bundled...
Search Light is bundled...
The EU doesnt seem to care about them. Why? The answer is the REAL injustice.
Anybody familiar enough with the basics to estimate the environmental impact of seperate browser CD's?
They need to be manufactured: raw materials -> CD pressing factory
They need to make their way to retailers: factory -> retailers
They need to make their way to customers: retailers -> customers
They need to make their way to landfill/recycler: customers -> waste disposal
I would think that 100,000,000 units in europe would be a conservative estimate over a 10 year period.
"His name was James Damore."
Well, with Linux there is little choice. Due to it's obscurity and lack of popularity, unless you put all the software in one place it would be pretty difficult to use. Also, the number of packages isn't really something to brag about. First, many of those packages are not full featured software programs. Many are single use command line tools that do little except handle [stdin] and [stdout].
Second, check out Aminet's collection of Amiga software, a machine that has been dead for awhile. Around 32,000 packages, not including any graphics, music, demo or text files.
"When you see a unixer brainwashed beyond saving, kick him out of the door." - Xah Lee
That's the free market for you.
And to be honest, as long as it breaks people's association that the internet = the big blue "e", it'll be worth it. For as long as people think that icon IS the internet, there can be no serious competition. At least once people are aware there are different browsers, they might be easier to sway when it comes to switching to a better product.
And none of the browser makers wanted to be included either. This whole case has always been a fairly petty complaint from Netscape because they were making money out of a product Microsoft turned into a free commodity. Not so great for Netscape, but pretty damned great for consumers.
It's always been the underlying flaw with the monopoly case against Microsoft, yes Microsoft has the lion's share of the market. Yes it's very difficult for alternatives to compete. Yes Microsoft bought out or wiped out a few competitors along the way. What do you do about it? Consumers have pretty much universally failed to embrace linux, and the primary reason it's difficult to compete with Windows is because no matter how nice your OS is no one's software will run on it.
Whatever Microsoft did to get here, they're where they are now and no amount of these court cases is going to change that.
You are a fucking moron, seriously, you are a fucking moron. If you can't see what has happened, after all the 100s of articles about this exact same subject, if you can't see the importance of controlling the browser yet, then the only possible reason is that you are a fucking moron.
Mod me down all you want, this had to be said. Anyone coming here, running around asking this stupid questions, deserves to be shot down.