Microsoft is now going to offer five different browsers with Windows 7. Your choices of browsers is going to be Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. This comes after a 2007 complaint from the makers of Opera and a investigation from the European Commission. The European Commission ruled that it was anticompetitive for Microsoft not to offer choices when it came to internet browsers. The current plan is for a window to pop up  during the Windows 7 install and ask you what browser you would like to install. Microsoft has stated that any browser with over 0.5 percent of market share would be added to the list of options with a max of 10 browsers.

The only catch is, in order to pick a different browser the computer must be connected to the internet, which worries many people but they say its a nice start. The better option would be to have the third party browsers packed in with Windows. I don’t think this is going to effect the corporate world at all, I believe most of corporate environments are still using Internet Explorer 6, or 7. This still has to be approved by the European Commission so this still could see some changes but they have already agreed to the idea. I think this will be great, it gives third parties a better chance and it will also increase competition.