Really, they do. Running an unregistered/illegal copy of Windows? Removed the Windows Genuine Authority (WGA) adware crap for your system? No problem! Microsoft will let you download and install IE7. Form the Internet Exploiter Explorer Blog:
Because Microsoft takes its commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously, we’re updating the IE7 installation experience to make it available as broadly as possible to all Windows users. With today’s “Installation and Availability Update,” Internet Explorer 7 installation will no longer require Windows Genuine Advantage validation and will be available to all Windows XP users. If you are not already running IE7, you can get it now from the Internet Explorer home page on Microsoft.com, get a customized version from a third-party site, or, if you haven’t already received it via Automatic Updates, this version will be delivered to you as we described previously.
Now, why anyone would want to do this is beyond me. I have IE7 at work and I have Firefox. 99.9% of the time I use Firefox. The only time I use IE7 is when a customer calls in and says there site is displaying oddly. Most of the time I go to their site my response is, “Looks fine in Firefox…give me a moment to load up IE7….oh I see what you mean looking at your site in IE.” Usually it is a coding issue which I may or may not be able to help them out with. Most of the time it has to do with custom coding and that is something they are on their own with.
I guess Microsoft is no longer in denial that IE is losing market share to other browsers such as Firefox, Netscape and Opera. But how the heck does this ” help protect the entire Windows ecosystem”? If anything it is an open invitation to continue using unregistered/illegal copies of Windows
News Source: CyberNet News
I can only see that as a good thing.
By the way, I find it weird how you brought up Netscape among the browsers that are a threat to IE. :p
Netscape is dead and over with…
It was more just as a list of other browsers. Netscape 9 is being promoted as a social version of Firefox 2. I suppose there are still some die-hard Netscape users who don’t want to leave their social network (aka min-AOL).
Now, why anyone would want to do this is beyond me.
Simple. They don’t want users to try Firefox, Opera or the rest. If they did they would know what they had been missing with IE all of these years. The user will eventually have to upgrade to another OS, but he will probably stick with his new choice of browser. If they allow pirates to download IE without WGA, then when the user upgrades his OS, he’ll probably stick with IE.