Windows 7 E | The Coffeehouse

Ubuntu

In reply to Bass

#Jun 11th @ 5:16 PM

I second that.

GoddersUK
I CAN has cheezburger and you CAN'T has stop me!

In reply to Ubuntu

#Jun 11th @ 5:12 PM

Oh yes, I think most people I know do that Perplexed

*pulls out a copy of unatteneded installations scripts for dummies*

I mean, seriously, unatteneded installations scripts have their place and all in large organsiations, but this is really home users. Do you really, seriously, think ACME inc. is going to change it's browser choice because of something like that?

Ion Todirel
buuu

hehe, soon we'll have to use hex numbers for a OS name, Windows 7 E 9 C lol Smiley

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

Opera's CTO weighed in:

“We note with intereste that Microsoft now seems capable of separating IE from Windows. However, we do not believe that Microsoft’s move will restore competition for desktop browsers.

Yeah... explain again how this lack of competition cause Firefox to still be gaining marketshare while IE continues to lose it?

Most users get their operating systems from the OEM channel and Microsoft will recommend that OEMs pre-install IE8. As such, users are unlikely to be given a genuine choice of browsers.

“We believe that the idea of a ‘ballot screen’ is better: when going online, users will be asked which browser(s) they prefer to use. The browser(s) of choice will the painlessly be installed and ready for use.”

Who decides which browsers get to go on the ballot screen? In what order? Remember that this has to be totally fair to everyone. Also:

"It looks like you want to garboozl. You'll need a Zormfglasr for that. Which Zormfglasr do you want to use? Garblfex, Yomyomyom or Mormor?"

Yeah, that's real painless.

ZippyV
Fired Up

In reply to Bas

#Jun 12th @ 6:04 AM

The ballot screen is the same as a user typing firefox.com or opera.com in the browser. If they want another browser they can download and install it by going to the website. Even if there would be a list of browsers to choose from there is no reason to think that Opera would suddenly gain a bigger marketshare because people want to install their browser.

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

In reply to Bas

#Jun 12th @ 6:04 AM

Everyone knows Mormor is the best Zormfglasr. Even my grandmother knows that Garblfex is for n00bs!

Larry Osterman

In reply to Ubuntu

#Jun 11th @ 4:22 PM

Ummm... You do know that Sun effectively just went under (was bought by Oracle), right? The "open source your operating system and sell overpriced PC" business model sort-of doesn't work.

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

In reply to Larry Osterman

#Jun 12th @ 8:24 AM

To be fair, Sun did a lot more to shoot themselves in the foot than open source their OS. That was just a last ditch (and frankly absurd) move to try and save the sinking ship.

I think Joel on Software still has the best explanation I've seen: a bytecode based virtual machine environment that runs on multiple platforms like Java has the effect of commoditizing hardware, which is precisely what you don't want to do when you make your money selling hardware. Sun's backing of Java is the single most puzzling bussiness decision I've ever seen.

jmar
R. Crumb rules

A simple search for 'browsers' offers ample choice :

http://www.google.com/search?q=browsers&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Why does the EU want to dumb down the world to the level of dull lumps who can't find their way to an IE alternative ?

Dexter

In reply to ZippyV

#Jun 12th @ 7:28 AM

It's not the same thing. They get something that they don't seem to have, a way to promote their browser.

Look at all the other popular browsers, they're all made by big, known companies (Apple, Google, Microsoft) or by the "community" (Mozilla). Apple and MS ship the browser with the operating system, Google offers it for downloading on many of its sites. The "community" places countless of "Get Firefox" links on countless sites.

"Opera? What's that? That classical piece of music mixed with lyrics? That's uncool. Ah, it's a browser? Who makes it? Opera? Never heard of them."

Now they're trying to get some publicity for free, and not only for free, but using a competitor's software as a vehicle. Weird to say the least.

brian.shapiro
things go on as always

In reply to Dexter

#Jun 12th @ 8:54 AM

Opera hasn't even tried any significant marketing campaign.

They don't market, they don't advertise, and when their browser doesn't increase in market share, they sue saying its someone else's fault.

Ray7

The fact that Firefox gets installed just about everywhere shows that there isn't really a problem here. Not so long ago, I fired up internet explorer on a teacher's PC. The only items in the history list were MSN and Mozilla, which is where she went to download the browser that she has used ever since. There is nothing in Windows that prevented her from doing this as soon as she switched on the machine.

Suggestions for retooling Lynx are unrealistic but I'm wondering if there is something MS could do to help. Perhaps when IE first runs, it should present a tiled view of alternative browser sites, and refuse to move anywhere else until the user has installed one. I think that seems to be the gist of what is being asked for here.

... and I can't believe that after all these years, people still think that typing 'M$' makes them look cool ....

Charles
Welcome Change

In reply to jmar

#Jun 12th @ 8:50 AM

What about all the dull lumps who can't find and experience the Internet without a browser? Not because they're dull lumps, of course. There's simply no alternative mechanism that provides the same level of efficiency (which is not maximal). But will this always be case? No. Of course not...

C

giovanni
...

In reply to Dovella

#Jun 11th @ 12:26 PM

You are right, consumers should choose, not OEMs! I wish there would be a way of slipstreaming the browser of choice into an installation of Windows.

GoddersUK
I CAN has cheezburger and you CAN'T has stop me!

In reply to Ray7

#Jun 12th @ 11:49 PM

Why force the user to install one?

That's up to them.

joechung

In reply to Ubuntu

#Jun 11th @ 3:46 PM

joechung

In reply to Charles

#Jun 13th @ 12:34 AM

Windows could use an HTTP-savvy package installer like the Microsoft Web Platform Installer, but for all Windows applications (including Web browsers), not just server-side Web applications.