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!
