Microsoft Will Charge 4 Euros for a CD with Internet Explorer 8
Written by Vygantas Lipskas on July 17, 2009
NTRA Net writes:
The decision to remove the browser from the European version of Windows 7 to charges of the European Commission’s dominance of market forces to obtain the software by means other than that built into the system, so Microsoft has created a guide guidance for installation and the availability of a CD to pay.
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That’s good news. Mainly because IE will maybe stop being onsidered freeware, which it has never been (well, maybe when there was a Linux and Mac version) because you have to pay for it alongside the OS, but also because people will want to buy the E version, which is cheaper, I think.
Furthermore, it’s not bad because, first, you can download it for free anyway, and second, other browsers have physical paid CD versions too, namely Firefox.
What’s interesting is that I can get Ubuntu shipped to my house in Portugal completely for free in a matter of weeks…
Of course, Microsoft will still be at an advantage as it can promote/advertise IE better and it is the browser most people know. Should this go through, when IE is unbundled and users have to choose their own browser, the other browsers have a huge task to promote themselves as alternatives to IE. Something Firefox is doing reasonably well in but Opera will need to improve on. On the other hand, Microsoft might not advertise IE aggressively as their mail line business is operating systems, not the internet.