Microsoft Releasing WGA-Free IE7 -- The Question Now is..."Why?"

posted by  claire (62)  13 months ago (feeds.feedburner.com)

Mary Jo Foley pontificates on why Microsoft would release a version of Internet Explorer 7 that no longer requries Windows Genuine Advantage validation checks. An interesting article and an interesting piece of news that I think is being missed elsewhere in the news:

A day after Microsoft rolled out a refresh of Internet Explorer (IE) 7 that no longer requires Windows Genuine Validation (WGA) checks, industry watchers are speculating as to why the company did so.

[snip]

Not surprisingly, there are other theories as to why Microsoft removed WGA from the browser. Perhaps Microsoft decided that WGA was enough of a deterrent to result in IE 7 failing to gain marketshare as fast as the company would like. From Ars Technica:

Read on for more...