"How much will actually change?
Microsoft have admitted that OEMs will be able to install a browser
of their choice before shipping the PC. In practice this is likely
to mean very few PCs will not end up with IE on them as I’d
imagine Microsoft are banking on the fact that most OEMs will
install IE8 anyway. They’ll probably claim that it’s
what their customers demand. That’s one of those oft-made
claims along the lines of “everybody does it” where the
claimant has not actually asked even a subset of the amount of
people they refer to. In addition if you consider Microsoft’s
relationship with OEMs, it’s not a huge jump to guess that
some kind of financial pressure could be placed upon the OEM to
ensure they deliver with IE anyway."