Opera wants Microsoft to include other browsers in Windows 7
By Justin Mann	 on March 17, 2009, 16:27 23 comments
The biggest development from Microsoft in recent days has been the rumors and then official announcements regarding their plans for Internet Explorer in Windows 7. It all started when the EC looked to force Microsoft's hand in removing its browser from Windows altogether, and quickly escalated from there. After many rumors began surfacing about Microsoft's plans, the company actually confirmed that Windows 7 will ship with the ability to remove IE 8, along with numerous other stock Windows components. Media Player, Media Center, Windows Search and more will all become optional components, making Windows a much more modular OS than it has been in the past.
Those efforts, however, are apparently not enough for everyone – Opera among them. Developer of the like-named browser, Opera, has always faced an uphill battle in browser adoption, competing against IE originally and now with the very popular Firefox and the relative newcomer Chrome as well. They want to see change in Microsoft's policy, believing that more user choice would be beneficial, but apparently their wishes go well beyond just removing IE – they want Microsoft to include alternative browsers with the OS itself. Opera asserts that to really encourage "competition," the only solution is to present users with a complete choice, adding numerous browsers as options to install by default. When asked about how Microsoft would actually implement such a feature, Opera stated that the tactical portion of that plan isn't up to them.
That's a bold statement, and one that's sure to draw some criticism. Microsoft faces a lot of legal issues with Windows already, and shipping it with other people's software right out of the box may bring even more potential problems into the mix. Some of them include having outdated versions of the browsers installed, deciding which are included and which aren't, how to ensure compatibility and more. What's your take on the matter, should Microsoft actually include other people's browsers in Windows?
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