The article doesn't say when will this come into effect... if it's after Christmas, many millions will already have bought Windows 7 (many already have anyway) without the browser choice screen, like I have. MS will probably delay it as much as they legally can I guess.
I find this whole thing curious, because it reflects the lack of any speed in justice being made. Back in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004... Internet Explorer 6 had an enormous market share and what did the EU do ? Nothing.
We were almost stuck with an insecure and at a certain point many years old browser, which Microsoft didn't care to update technologically, and besides, it didn't comply with a lot of standards.
In recent years, first with Firefox 2 and now 3 and 3.5, and the word spreading, IE, even with Microsoft having woken up and implementing new features, has lost and is losing market share every day to Firefox.
And now that the path towards the loss of the monopoly of IE looks like it's already on auto-pilot, the EU comes along pretending to be doing something necessary. What a lack of timing!
And whatever happend to the Media Player problems ? I remember Windows XP was also released in an N version, but only 1500 copies have been sold to OEMS and none to the consumers directly (who in their right mind would buy the thing ?); the price being the same and it being sold alongside, and with Windows Vista the same; there are also N version of 7 available, but the Eu alows MS to sell them alonside the normal versions, for the same price. Let's see, does this make any sense at all ? If I can spare an extra download, I will. This is just classic proforma burocracy.
And the Media PLayer thaty comes with Windows 7 is actually quite good, with a nice interface and buil-in codecs. But wat, it's too late, the EU can't fine them anymore, because they allow the N versions.