EU vs Microsoft

How can Microsoft unfairly tie THEIR browser, to THEIR software?

It goes beyond that. Control of standards is what's at stake. Unfortunately, Microsoft has a big hand in the direction of web standards and the like versus other companies. Through the OS/browser integration, they can effectively lock out competitors by not allowing access to their "proprietary standards".

It's the same reason why I do not support Blu-Ray. I don't want a company having unilateral control over a standard such as a media format.

Also, can you remove IE from Windows? Without jumping through massive hoops?

Why would I want to remove it? It works fine, and I can always install Firefox, or Safari and never use it again. THe way I see it, either use it, or don't, there's alternatives if you don't want to use Microsoft.

yes, you can.

but then windowsupdate doesn't work (on xp). vista runs a separate app

I think the biggest complaint that people have is Microsoft trying to force everything down peoples throats. Like B mentioned, not being able to do windows updates on anything but IE is kind of stupid. How many websites have you guys been to that do not display correctly on anything but IE? That is what pisses me off the most. I am all for standards, even more so on the internet. Microsoft is not really a team player when it comes to standards. They do what they want regardless of the rest of the community. Granted they can do that because they have major market share but still. They would be a little more well received if they played ball a bit.

Maybe it's just because I like Windows, having used several Linux distros over time, and a Mac for a few minutes, but it seems to me that they don't really need to play ball as they practically invented the game, at least as far as taking it to the consumer market. I am of the opinion that if you don't like it, don't use it, but don't see why they should change to suit your (not you specifically, in general you) needs. But then again, I am a gamer, and Windows owns gaming, unless there's a league for TuxRacer I am not aware of .

Unpossible! Microsoft said they could NEVER be broken apart

Does it run decently? I could care less about Windows Update. Honestly if I were to run a Windows box, not having that would be a good convincer.

it can be done. it's not easy. it involves manual registry hacks and unregisterring dll's

other apps rely on it (some email clients use ie to render html email, etc), so removing ie may be problematic without you even knowing it....


this pretty much sums it up
Internet Explorer - MozillaZine Knowledge Base

Off Topic,...what gaming you into, I run a COD4 server.

CoD 4, Crysis, Bioshock are all I have installed right now. What's your server name/IP?

{WRL} Clan Server -IP: 193.47.83.172 Port: 28937

No one in there at the Moment, most of the guys i game with are American

I will be on there about 8pm GMT till about 2am.

BBC NEWS | Business | EU fines Microsoft record $1.4bn

1.4 billion. damn.

Bullshit, son! There's no computer that can play Crysis and you know it

Thats got to be the most truthful statement I have witnessed here LOL.

The ongoing browser wars have much more at stake then microsoft. From what I understand they are making some big steps towards standards with thier next browser. Whats at stake? The very internet is at stake people. But what most people don't understand is microsoft has an equal problem. It's not just them saying screw the standards. They do to a degree,.. btw Microsoft did not invent the web browser or the internet. The problem is they have to find a way to deliver a standards based browser without messing with all of thier customers running intranets and such on older protocols.

With that being said,.. FF was not so different that long ago. They had thier issues,.. and without the legacy to deal with like MS,.. they have come a long way towards standards. Speaking from a web developers point of view,.. 70% of all browser used,. is IE. This is simply a fact which can be easily proven by whatching your stats. I would be willing to bet that number holds true for this very site. What happens if one day half or more of the internet is closed to IE users? We are getting close people. Web designers/developers must use many hacks and cheats to make standard web languages work fully with IE.

I support and us IE daily,.. I have several other browsers installed as it is part of my job. But I just wanted to make the point that its bigger then a company doing things thier way with thier browser. The internet we know it is in danger.