Microsoft May Have to Let Users Choose Browser
Given the chance to choose, which browser would you use?
Microsoft and the European Union are still fighting tooth and nail over the fact that the Redmond company is bundling Internet Explorer with Windows, and in doing so grabbing itself a pretty huge percentage of the market.
Bloomberg reports that, way back in January, when this whole thing started, one of the proposed solutions by the EU was to offer users of newly purchased PCs a kind of “ballot screen” and let the customer choose which browser they wanted to use.
Citing people familiar with the case, Bloomberg says EU regulators have now sent out questionnaire to computer makers, inquiring if Microsoft pressured them to oppose the idea or more specifically, asking if Microsoft had asked them to make any specific statements to regulators. Representation for Microsoft has said the company has not seen the aforementioned questionnaire, nor has it pressured any PC makers to oppose the ballot-screen idea.
Many of you have suggested that Microsoft offers users the choice when they first try to connect to the web from their new machine and it really does seem like the best solution. That said, if they’re going to make Microsoft offer users the chance to choose, they’d have to insist Apple do the same. If you were offered a choice, would you opt for a browser other than the proprietary browser that came with your OS? Let us know in the comments below!
Thats silly, if people arent savvy enough to switch to another browser, what difference would a ballot make?
Thats silly, if people arent savvy enough to switch to another browser, what difference would a ballot make?
notice that more and more government agencies in europe are ditching windows in favor of linux so the "punishment" is not heavy...
LOL. Linux is making progress but I hope you don't honestly believe what you just typed.
You used the words "Microsoft" and "fair" in the same sentence. LOL
If Microsoft disabled the ability to install other browsers...sure...complain away...
Need we remember how the EU screwed with Windows Vista (and now 7) by not allowing microsoft to lock the kernal. So esencially instead of us getting a PC that is not vulnerable to any really big problem virii, we get a PC that is just as vulnerable because in order for antivirus software to work you cannot lock down the kernal. This was the EU's fault that we didn't get a more secure OS.
The EU needs to stop thinking about how to increase their budget and needs to start thinking about the users in this whole ordeal. The users are certainly NOT their concern. Once again a government body more concerned with lining its own pockets than protecting the consumer.
If a company has a monopoly it is because they have a better product, it has nothing to do unfair business practices. You cannot survive with a crappy product even if you do have unfair business practices.
This is no different than the useless move to aid auto companies to survive their own mistakes. Sure jobs would be lost...but in the end there would be innnovation and far more jobs created. Loss now...mega gain later...but no, lets have government involvement and slow down progress to a dead crawl.
My rant for the day.
They claim to be acting for the people, but I don't see them consulting ordinary folks in Berlin, London and Paris.
Or maybe EU is just full of shit like always.
By using a download tool like, wget, ftp, scp, etc. I don't know why you think you need a web browser to do this. The same tool that gives folks the choice to download can use those protocols to get it.
It's a good thing our President is trying to model our country after them.
I'm not sure that Apple would be considered the same as Microsoft on this one. Apple only sells their OS (bundled with their web browser) for use on their hardware. They sell a total package, plus they have only a fraction of the market share. Microsoft's model is to sell the OS (bundled with their web browser) to pretty much every system builder. System builders have the option to install/uninstall features as they see fit for their pre-configured systems. If there was a huge public outcry for HP or Dell systems (for example) to have Firefox or Chrome installed from the factory, they already would be. Unless the EU can prove that MS is coercing system builders in some way to not do that, I'm not sure how this is Microsoft's fault or problem. If system builders are simply choosing not to, uncoerced, than the market has spoken, so what's the problem?