The "E" edition is a result of European Union antitrust regulations that ruled that bundling the IE browser with the operating system created an unfair advantage for Microsoft. "There will be an E edition for every Windows 7 SKU that removes IE," a Microsoft spokesman said.
"We're committed to making Windows 7 available in Europe at the same time that it launches in the rest of the world, but we also must comply with European competition law as we launch the product," Dave Heiner, vice president and deputy general counsel, wrote 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."
The E edition will accompany the consumer versions of Windows 7 in Europe, including Windows 7 Home Basic and Premium, Windows 7 Starter, and Windows 7 Ultimate. The "E" suffix will be attached, so a product will be named "Windows 7 Home Premium E," for example. The versions will be available in 23 European languages.Aside from the exclusion of Internet Explorer, the "E" editions will be functionally the same as the other versions of Windows 7, Heiner said. Microsoft began communicating this to OEMs earlier this week.
Microsoft has already announced an "N" edition that cuts out Windows Media Player. It wasn't immediately clear whether an "NE" version would be also issued, however, removing both Internet Explorer and the Windows Media Player.
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