As part of an effort to alleviate its current European Union-sized headache across the Atlantic, Microsoft has volunteered to remove Internet Explorer from Windows 7. The move is an about face for the company, which had previously testified such a removal was impossible.
Indeed, Microsoft has stated before that it would be impossible to remove the browser from Windows 7, due to the fact that “the browser is closely connected with the operating system.” However, thanks to EU pressure and a multi-billion dollar fine hanging over its head, Microsoft has miraculously discovered a way to make it so.
As a refresher, the EU demanded that MS remove IE (or include competitor’s browsers) in Windows because of its dominant 90% market penetration across the continent. According to an article at Swedish news site e24, the EU has also proposed that Microsoft include competitor’s browsers, including those from Opera, Mozilla and Google, as part of a settlement. [e24 (Swedish) – Thanks, Andreas]
