9 March, 2009

Competition still required

The idea of making Windows 7 modular, so users can uninstall (or at least disable) ancillary features like Media Player or Internet Explorer, is an excellent one, but only as a starting point.

A far better model would be to offer them as optional extras, available on the OEM-provided system disc but not pre-installed. If, say, Internet Explorer is already on a user's desktop, inertia alone would dissuade him/her from trying Firefox; if a computer arrived with no music player at all, the user would have a more genuine choice whether to install Media Player, iTunes, or whatever.