That's probably not how it's going to go down. Yes, Microsoft will sell Windows 7 without Internet Explorer - or any browser, for that matter - in Europe, come October 22nd (the official launch date for the new operating system). But it'll probably be bundled with a CD with IE on it, which most users will install. Of course, Microsoft could provide a way to download and install IE and other browsers as soon as you're connected to the net; that would be a much nicer solution, but I somehow doubt this will be the case.
However, all this browser-less Windows 7 business opens our eyes to something we already know. The internet is the computer. The OS without a browser is nearly useless. Removing the web browser - arguably the most important software platform right now - from the operating system feels annoying, like being sold a car without wheels, or a printer without a printer cable (many printer manufacturers, in fact, did that in certain cases). Microsoft has paid 2.63 billion dollars of fines to the EU, but this time, I think the solution (for Microsoft's anti-competitive practices, according to EU regulations) is worse than the problem.
For the end user, the problem was never the fact that Microsoft bundles a web browser with the OS. It was the fact that it made it nearly impossible to uninstall it, discouraged the user to switch to another browser by tieing IE deeply (and unnecessarily) with some other crucial components of the OS, and didn't let you do certain very important things - like update your Windows - without it. All those things should be gone in Windows 7, but remove browser from the OS altogether? There are plenty of less-annoying solutions, and Microsoft should choose (and be allowed by the EU to choose) one of them.