Arstechnica reports that Windows 7 will ship in the EU countries this year without IE8 installed by default.

In fact, no web browser will be present on the retail version of Win7, although OEMs are free to bundle any browsers they want with their products.

If you are unfortunate enough to have purchased Windows 7 retail in the EU, then IE will be available via CD or FTP.

You can order the CD online and download an FTP client, both using your web browser, which you don't have, or you can use command line FTP...

There might be a rush on these T Shirts amongst those of us who have to play tech support for our families.