News - Microsoft ditches Windows 7 E version

[HEXUS]

Last week?s announcement of a browser ballot screen renders the special edition unnecessary.

Read more.

[nightkhaos]

Interesting Development, does this mean that Internet Explorer will almost be impossible to remove from the Windows Operating System as per usual?

[TheAnimus]

Interesting Development, does this mean that Internet Explorer will almost be impossible to remove from the Windows Operating System as per usual?

It was going to be before, half of IE is a platform API exposed to developers.

If you want to say host firefox in your VB6 app, your **** outta luck.

IE has to stay, it would of been a case of removing the shortcuts. IMO they should have done it to screw opera over, no OEM would ship it, with this screen thou, some people might accidentally click the wrong icon, and end up with it!

[GheeTsar]

Sounds like good news for those who pre-ordered the full retail version for cheaper than a typical Windows OS upgrade package. I use Firefox 99% of the time, but sometimes IE will work better with browser based games so have both installed. Having no operating system at all was just going to be an annoying extra step to install IE as well as Firefox.

[nightkhaos]

It was going to be before, half of IE is a platform API exposed to developers.

If you want to say host firefox in your VB6 app, your **** outta luck.

IE has to stay, it would of been a case of removing the shortcuts. IMO they should have done it to screw opera over, no OEM would ship it, with this screen thou, some people might accidentally click the wrong icon, and end up with it!

Opera is trying to be too standards complaint. "We'll stick to the standards and if you page doesn't follow them tough, you can't render on our pages."

What they seem to forget is a little thing called backwards compatiably. And the fact that when people code their first website they don't actually *read* the standards straight away. It only takes an experienced web-developer who knows why the standards are benefitial to get standards compliant browsers.

And to be honest, it's not just Opera that Microsoft wants to screw over. Everyone except Firefox are in some way directly in Microsoft's crosshairs. Bing anyone?

[nightkhaos]

Sounds like good news for those who pre-ordered the full retail version for cheaper than a typical Windows OS upgrade package. I use Firefox 99% of the time, but sometimes IE will work better with browser based games so have both installed. Having no operating system at all was just going to be an annoying extra step to install IE as well as Firefox.

Important Add-ins? Or stuck under a rock? Right now anyone who considered themself a geek will ONLY use firefox if they have add-ins that they absolutely need. And no, that does not include Ad-block+.

[Animus404]

Cocks.
I don't want or need IE.

[nightkhaos]

Cocks.
I don't want or need IE.

/me passes Animus404 the "I am an anti-fan of Internet Explorer (IMAIE)" Membership Card.

Welcome to the club!

[TheAnimus]

Why do we always repeat this same cycle.

some muppets, who have no idea of how software is written, manging a network, start harping on about having IE 'removed'.

do you think you should remove nt.dll too?

[Singh400]

Important Add-ins? Or stuck under a rock? Right now anyone who considered themself a geek will ONLY use firefox if they have add-ins that they absolutely need. And no, that does not include Ad-block+.

I consider myself a geek and use IE & Chrome

Cocks.
I don't want or need IE.

No one is forcing you to use IE. You are welcome to use any browser of your choice.

[cordas]

I just wonder why they didn't do this from the get go... Hell they could have done this with Vista and XP.....

To me its just more evidence of M$ behaving like a headless chicken, I really think I could do a better job of running this company and i am sure I could do that better job on a couple of hours a week. I am always astounded about the praise M$ has gotten in recent years for its 'business acumen' as to me it has shown just about none... Gates did pull off a major coup all those years ago with DOS and they did have a bit of a fight in the early days but since Win3.x they have had pretty much plain sailing they have provided a reasonable product that does what its meant to do in a fairly easy to understand manner. Yet at every turn M$' biggest competition has been its only stupidity, greed and sporadic incompetence.

[jim]

I still can't understand all the reactions as if IE was going to be removed completely from the OS - I would happily bet that in the "E" version you would be able to run IE without downloading any files whatsoever, as long as you knew where to go in the OS/registry. Why would Microsoft bother? A fair proportion of computer users don't understand the difference between the address bar and the google search bar, so I'm sure a shortcut removal would be more than adequate.

Besides which, it's hardly as if it wastes system resources, as some of the nLite aficionados try to claim... you don't exactly lose anything by having IE installed. Maybe if you tried to run Windows 7 on a P3 with a 10GB hard drive and 128mb RAM. And this is coming from someone who hates having to use IE.

I'd also like to add that the "bundling" rubbish is a complete joke, but that's another discussion altogether.

[kalniel]

I just wonder why they didn't do this from the get go... Hell they could have done this with Vista and XP.....

To me its just more evidence of M$ behaving like a headless chicken, I really think I could do a better job of running this company and i am sure I could do that better job on a couple of hours a week. I am always astounded about the praise M$ has gotten in recent years for its 'business acumen' as to me it has shown just about none... Gates did pull off a major coup all those years ago with DOS and they did have a bit of a fight in the early days but since Win3.x they have had pretty much plain sailing they have provided a reasonable product that does what its meant to do in a fairly easy to understand manner. Yet at every turn M$' biggest competition has been its only stupidity, greed and sporadic incompetence.

Sounds like you should set up a competitor then. Should be easy to make a few hundred billion a year for you.

[TheAnimus]

you think you can do a better job.

start your own company.

I think they've made moronic mistakes, the handling of Vista, the resources for XP SP2 (which was a free major OS revision in effect).....

But i don't think i could do a better job, this is probably because as brilliant and super awsome as i am, i have the inteligence to know how big a problem running a massive firm like that is.

[amdavies]

When business people congratulate M$ it's similar to politicians congratulating a dictator on how well they've run a country. Freedom of choice isn't in the remit of either M$ or your average dictator; both practice Embrace, Extend and Extinguish and base their entire philosophy on it. Indeed, the very height of pure capitalism is the same as a dictatorship; one entity in control with everyone underneath doing exactly as they say.

However you feel about M$, they are definitely worth a study in how to massively exploit a business sector.

[cordas]

I do think I could do a better job, but I don't think I could write better software (or any software worth selling in fact).

M$ run an effective monopoly, and they do it badly. I think the mistakes are probably made because they don't think things through, the W7-E edition reversal is just the latest in a number of retarded decision regarding the launch of W7. Personally I think that most people with 2 brain cells to rub together could have sat down in an office a couple of months ago and came out with a better launch than M$ has produced...

1) Decide what versions you are going to have, don't artificially limit them. (Such as the netbook application limit)
2) Multi-user licenses are a no brainer in this day and age, I would suggest 3,5 and maybe a 10 license pack.
3) Sort out the Europe mess before you make any announcements. What this article is talking about could have been agreed months ago I am sure.
4) Set realistic price points and sell to them, don't bother with this convoluted pre-order nonsense.
5) Treat Apple and its advertising with the contempt it deserves, but don't sink to their levels of infantile bull droppings.
6) Head off to the beach for a beer and a BBQ.