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Microsoft Drops Windows 7 E Editions
A week after Microsoft agreed to include a browser ballot screen in Windows 7 systems sold in Europe, then announced that those systems would initially include no browser at all — specifically, no Internet Explorer — Microsoft has changed its mind again and dropped talk of a European Windows 7 E edition. Here is the official Microsoft blog announcement, which includes a screen shot of the proposed ballot screen. The browsers are listed left-to-right in order of market share, with IE therefore having pride of place. PC Pro notes that, since the ballot screen would not appear if IE were not pre-installed, Microsoft's proposal opens the door for Google to work with PC manufacturers to get Chrome on new machines. Note that the browser ballot screen has not yet been accepted by the EU, though the initial reaction to it was welcoming.
This does look like a good way to go, and its good they also list the main features of every browser. This way more users also get to see how good Opera is too. However to make the list completely unbiased, they could randomize the order on every page load.
Seeing it uses IE to download the browser you want, have they made it so that IE gets removed after that too?
That joke has long past its expiration date; Bill Gates isn't at Microsoft anymore (on a regular basis), the Borg is from a tv show that ended over 15 years ago.
It's like using the Edsel to represent Ford, its just old and stale. time for slashdot to get with the times.
It seems to me that this enables manufacturer to choose:
1) Install "IE", which by default asks user which browser to install
2) Install another browser by default
3) Dont install any browser at all (the Windows 7 E route)
What makes me wonder tho, is the IE removed after installing another browser?
I agree - lets change it to a flying chair.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
The most important thing is being able to remove the browser(and I mean really remove it) so it doesn't have it's hooks so deep in the OS that its impossible to get out. If they would just allow users to do that, then I think they should be able to ship whatever browser(s) they want with the system.
Monstar L
The logistics of separating out the IE browser from the rest of the OS must have been more daunting than anticipated. I do wish the "ballot screen" idea would be used in places outside the EU, as well...
Are those orders canceled since the product no longer exists, or will they get the Full (non-upgrade) Win7 version instead?
Laters Sol "Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"
The cost of the browser is not the issue, the control over what technologies get used on the Web is. Microsoft have proven that they don't want to play fair, by ignoring standards for so long and promoting their proprietary stuff. If Microsoft were to have a really poor market share, they'd have to write all their stuff for the open web, respecting standards so that everything works for every user. If they have 90% of all users on their platform, they can make sure that the other 10% are stuck trying to be compatible. This is basically what IE6 was and what IE represents. Their browser might be free as in beer to the user, but the indirect costs are enormous.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
It's far from pointless. People don't browse the web using a rendering engine, they use a browser. An HTML rendering engine is useless on its own. People need a way to tell the rendering engine what pages to load and render and a way to store caches, cookies, etc.. Leave the rendering engine on the system for help files, display in other apps, etc... that doesn't matter at all. As long as people are free to choose what they browse the web with, you remove Microsoft's dominance over web technologies and web evolution and that is the true goal.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
You assume most people actually KNOW there are free browsers (or even that they know what an "internet browser" is). That's sadly as far removed from reality as it can be.
Most people don't even know what Internet Explorer *IS*, for them, the IE icon means that they load up the internet (no... they don't connect. why would they connect? it's in .. aeh .. the thing under the table ... the harddrive!). If you tell them "you should use chrome, it's faster" or "you should use Firefox, it can do more stuff" or even "you should use anything but IE, as IE is a PoS" they'll look at you with big glassy eye and answer "but .. but ... I need Ze Internet!".
That's why having the ballot screen is a good thing : it tells the unknowing masses that there are alternatives. Now ... if we could have something similar for the bundled 30-days trials of MS Office and Norton ... (my wish would actually be that those wouldn't be bundled at all ... but that's probably completely unrealistic.)
"DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it's a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day."-C.Doctorow
Actually, as long as Microsoft keep pushing their one-vendor lock-in agenda, the icon is appropriate and not past its due date. When Microsoft becomes a beacon of openess that respects diversity, then the icon should be changed. The Borgs represent uniformity and control. Exactly what Microsoft stands for.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
Let's see: Originally they were the implacable, unstoppable all-assimilating hyper-baddies, yet every time they threatened disaster the goodies found a way to defeat them. After a while this got routine and they lost their menace; now, despite their still awesome power, they're somehow boring and irrelevant.
Eh, still seems like a good fit to me.
Resistance is futile...you will be... furnished.
AT&ROFLMAO
Then where's the Steve Jobs borg?
Well Apple's little update-jacking fiasco seems to have paid off. The screenshot shows that Safari is the third most popular Windows browser, in front of Chrome and Opera. I don't have any problem with Safari (fast, small, standards compliant) but I wonder if this is all an Apple plan... and they seriously need to just use Windows widgets and styles instead of imposing their Cocoa look on the windows environment..
I agree - lets change it to a flying chair.
This was modded Funny when it is in fact an awesome suggestion.
What makes me wonder tho, is the IE removed after installing another browser?
They've said (when announcing the 'E' versions) that it would not come with the browser front-end, but that the back-end rendering engine would still be there since so many other applications depend on it. So I guess it's more hidden than actually removed.
No need, the apple logo has the same effect for me.
Linux is facism
Have you seen some of the kernel devs? They're definitely not facist.
Hi Steve.
Provided completely without any copyrights withheld, I present, a better MS icon:
The Microsoft Flying Chair
Download several sizes, including transparent PNG images, in a ZIP
(Admittedly, the icon had a lot more motion blur before I shrunk it. :-( I could enhance it if there is interest from the Slashdot gang.
Not only that but they can make web tools Live/Bing/Hotmail work best with their browser - influencing users of those tools to almost be forced to to use IE.
They've already been bitten by that one. They blocked all browsers except IE from accessing MSN.com. After two days of people making noise about it they let everyone view MSN again.
Did they learn? No. Less than two years later they served a stylesheet to Opera (and only to Opera, other browsers received a working stylesheet and IE had its own) that deliberately broke the display of the page. They served Opera the IE stylesheet, which displayed fine, after some more complaints.
Was that enough for them? No, they tried again with hotmail. They sent Opera an incomplete javascript file that was missing a required function to empty the junk e-mail. Other browsers were sent a different javascript file.
I don't think they'd dare try again with how closely the EU is monitoring them now.
People need to stop modding this shit as insightful. Explorer isn't based on Internet Explorer either.
What you perceive as Safari is two components: Safari, and WebKit. WebKit is something you can't remove from Mac OS, as the shell would die horribly without it. You can happily drag Safari to the trash.
What you perceive as Internet Explorer is two components: Internet Explorer, and Trident. Trident is something you can't remove from Windows, as the shell would die horribly without it. You can happily drag Internet Explorer to the recycle bin (with one caveat: Windows will try replace it without some coaxing).
As you can see, the Safari and Internet Explorer arguments are one and the same, and people need to stop pretending that the Mac OS setup is somehow different.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Nah, Steve Jobs with Hypnotoad eyes would be more appropriate.
In Vista/W7, typing a URL into Windows Explorer pops open your default browser.