Rafael Rivera, as he usually does, put a massive amount of research into discovering workarounds for downloading Internet Explorer on Windows 7 E. He found and posted a rather ingenious workaround for users stuck in Europe with Windows 7 E(U-gimped). The trick, which you can read over at Within Windows, definitely succeeds in winning the “clever” label applied by Rafael, but what Rafael didn’t mention is that Windows 7 (or at least Windows Media Player) still has the Trident rendering engine somewhere within the stripped OS. This means a number of things:
- Bad: Upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 E shouldn’t be a problem whatsoever, despite what Microsoft may say. This, unfortunately, doesn’t do much for Microsoft’s image in Europe (unless Steven can come and tell us specifically why Windows Vista can’t be upgraded to Windows 7 E)
- Good: Windows really does rely on Trident for at least a few non-browsing-related functions, which makes sense given how useful HTML can be for creating a UI. It also gives a sense of validity to Microsoft’s claims with regards to the EU.
- Bad (for browser peddlers, Microsoft, and the user. Good for the EU): The EU, in its limited comprehension of how a browser works, might now use this as “evidence” of Microsoft being deceitful.
- Good: Your shiny new better-than-Snow-Leopard OS won’t be as gimped as you originally thought.
This also means that any applications which use Trident for rendering any HTML to present an interface to the user will still work without needing a browser, which means that application developers should still be happy.
You can catch Rafael’s guide here. While you’re at it, if you’re a native of an EU-governed state, please email them a few one-fingered salutes on behalf of the rest of the world.
Update: Paul would like to note that Microsoft has been “very upfront” about Windows 7 E having the Trident rendering engine. The fact is, Microsoft hasn’t really done a good job at pushing this note around, and given Microsoft’s other communication issues (again, noted by Paul), I’m inclined to say that the existence of Trident actually is news.
In fact, Microsoft also posted about it on their legal blog… in typical legalese. The official statement is:
Most importantly, the E versions of Windows 7 will continue to provide all of the underlying platform functionality of the operating system—applications designed for Windows will run just as well on an E version as on other versions of Windows 7.
To those of us who assume things in the most unrealistically general sense, “underlying platform functionality” includes Trident, but this by no means makes it obvious that Trident will still be in Windows 7 E, thereby proving Paul’s previous point about communication being a problem.
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Unfortunately, Trident is the BAD part about IE, if it used a decent engine I wouldn’t mind it at all.
“Good: Your shiny new better-than-Snow-Leopard OS won’t be as gimped as you originally thought.”
Was that really necessary? Is it the opinion of Windows enthusiasts sites now to give snide and unnecessary comments about Apple products whenever possible? I’ve seen it here recently, and I’ve seen it at WinSuperSite recently. Popular Mac enthusiasts website don’t do this – I’ve never seen MacRumors post comments belittling Microsoft before. Nor have I from AppleInsider.
Way to make AeroXP seem unprofessional, guys.
Brian, way to call this and winsupersite unprofessional when Apple themselves, not the communities, do the Microsoft-belittling.
Apple zealot at your finest, I guess.
I don’t support Apple’s belittling of Microsoft in the slightest – some of their ads go out of the way to cross the line, something I consider a sleazy way to gain marketshare – but it does gain marketshare. I personally use Microsoft products almost exclusively, with the exception of an old Apple laptop I have. Way to assume, though.
Brian, I’m not quite sure why saying Windows 7 is better than Snow Leopard would arouse such emotion on your part, but with regards to AeroXP being unprofessional… yes, this would be true.
It’s hard to consider any blog to be “professional,” actually. Blogs thrive on the fact that their authors post their opinions exclusively or alongside the news they post. My opinion is that Snow Leopard is worse than Windows 7, so I decided to put it in my post.
No hard feelings, Brian.
i’m sure no one at MS knows where I ends and E begins. I’m also sure it’s impossible to separate the 2 now. That they didn’t lie when they said they couldn’t get it out. Not for lack of (well at least not totally) of will but in great part because the code is now in a state where it’s completely beyond any human competence to visualize it’s state of integration.
Already with the source code for the shuttle it was admitted that the code was beyond human comprehension and i remember it to be a couple of million lines at the time.
Most blocks of code are generated by codegenerators which in turn are quality controlled by computerized processes. They are then assembled into the codebase via an automated proces that collates the code.
Which is then computer tested.
No way in hell anyone is going to comprehend that, but of course admitting to the world that MS has no idea how it’s code works is not what i would advise them to do.
So better to brave the onslaught of the EU, try to make the best of it, hide IE’s components and hope for the best.
Well, i quess MS decided it was a lost cause since it offers to put up a ballotscreen. It sure convinces me that the above is somewhat to the point. If it was really possible to get rid totally of IE they would never have given up.