Testing the water
Software giant Microsoft doesn't want the ongoing investigation by the European Commission (EC) into the legality of bundling its Internet Explorer (IE) browser with Windows to compromise the launch of Windows 7, so it stealthily came up with a solution.
Of course Microsoft had to notify OEMs of its plans to offer a special European edition of Windows 7 with IE removed and, inevitably, an email got leaked. This forced Microsoft to address the matter publicly, sooner than it apparently intended.
Dave Heiner, VP and deputy general counsel at Microsoft said in a blog post: "Given the pending legal proceeding, we've decided that instead of including Internet Explorer in Windows 7 in Europe, we will offer it separately and on an easy-to-install basis to both computer manufacturers and users."
"Windows 7 will be offered in Europe in all of the versions that will be available here in the United States, both 32- and 64-bit, with an ‘E' at the end of the product name (for instance, Windows 7 Home Premium E). The E versions of Windows 7 will ship at the same time as Windows 7 ships in the rest of the world, and they will be available in 23 European languages."