Well, it was going to happen sometime, I just didn’t expect it would be so soon.  A major computer manufacturer, in this case Sony, released a system that didn’t have Microsoft’s dominant Internet Explorer browser as the default browser option.  That, in and of itself, isn’t shocking, but who they partnered up with is.

Don’t get too excited; it’s not who most savvy Net browsers would want.

Rather than using Mozilla Firefox, Sony partnered up with another gigantic monster, Google.  Instead of IE, Sony has launched some VAIO laptops with Google Chrome in what is being described as a trial run.  Right.  I just wonder how much Google is paying Sony for the right to make their web brower (and search portal) the default on all of Sony’s PCs and is in talks to rope in other partners as well.

I’m not a Google hater by any means, but Chrome is slower than both IE and Firefox (at least when I used all three of them in a browser test).  It doesn’t have Firefox’s RAM-eating memory leak, but it also doesn’t have Firefox’s wide range of third-party add-ons that make blocking ads and safer surfing so easy.  Plus, for those that care, it doesn’t give the end user a choice to just install your favorite browser without a lot of jumping through hoops.

Give us a browser choice menu during initial start-up (or when customizing the system before purchase) and be done with it!  If I want Firefox or Chrome or IE, let me pick that one from the jump and not have to go through the irritation of installing the one I like and removing the ones I don’t.

Image:  Engadget