Microsoft to offer rival browsers with Vista and XP too

[Jos]

Late last week, Microsoft announced plans to give Windows users in Europe a choice of browser via the so-called “ballot screen” option. The proposal marks a drastic change from Microsoft’s former stand in which the software giant claimed that they would rather release Windows 7 with no browser whatsoever than with competing browsers.

The company recently posted a fairly detailed description of its proposal, which is currently being revised by European antitrust regulators, and revealed that the browser ballot screen will not be limited to Windows 7. Contrary to what was previously thought it will be delivered to Windows Vista and Windows XP users as well through Windows Update, if approved by the European Commission.

The Microsoft proposal says the ballot screen will “in a horizontal line and in an unbiased way display icons of and basic identifying information on the web browsers.” It will include the ten most widely-used alternatives but only the top five will be displayed more prominently. Despite falling into this category, Opera actually complained about the use of icons, claiming it would give an unfair advantage to the easily-recognizable IE.

Overall, however, the Norwegian browser maker was pleased with the proposal and said it would like to see this happen outside of Europe as well.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/35618-microsoft-to-offer-rival-browsers-with-vista-and-xp-too.html

 

[mattfrompa]

OMG opera SHUT UP!!! I hate your browser almost as much as I hate your company. Microsoft could offer to allow Opera to be the exclusive browser in Windows, completely disallowing the installation of any other browser, and force the homepage to be opera' s website and they would STILL find a way to complain....I will continue uninstalling opera on any computer I find without permission and replacing it with firefox.

 

[yukka]

Ive tried Opera but why use it when you can use firefox? They squeal so loudly too.

 

[JudaZ]

To bad Microsoft folded, even though it made Windows 7 arrive later to EU it was worth it just for them standing up for their company.

...Why isnt apple forced to include IE in their products? They include their safary crap, why no law suit agains them?

I'm not a big fan of Firefox my self, tend to crash to much for me, but understand people who like it as well . Windows with IE included never made any problem for anyone to download firefox and use that instead. And then firefox could do it on its own merits. Now MS is forced to use a competitors software in their product, how sick is that?

Like IE och hate it, like Microsoft och hate them.... it's still wrong.

And the EU forcing MS to include other browsers as a default...how is that fair to smaller browsers? or is Ms having to include all the worlds browser..everything from firefox to some piece of crap browser some dude wrote in his basment during a drunk weekend?

Who decides what browsers that should be included, only the ones that went and cried to mommy and sued Ms, or is it open season? .. otherwise this "suggestion" from the EU is hardly good for competition only helping the biggest companies.....and only doing it to mess with MS. Who wants to run a companie in that corporate climate, "if you get to big, we are gonna chop you down."

 

[Guest]

This is just getting silly. What's next, Opera complaining that their icon doesn't appear first?

Out of curiousity, is Apple going to be hounded by the EU to implement similar measures, or is it just MS? It'd seem to be only fair.

 

[Guest]

Thats not bad although I don't agree with this feature on Windows XP or Vista users. These users have already been using some favorite browser for a long time and it is not ideal to introduce a choice of other browsers.

Opera have to hold it's mouth because it is accusing Microsoft of everything. They should mind their own business and not to find unnecessary details.

 

[Guest]

On the last paragraph of the article, it was stated "the Norwegian browser maker was pleased with the proposal and said it would like to see this happen outside of Europe as well." I think Opera is passing their boundary and if MS is not careful, the same issue MS is facing in Europe will soon be encountered in the US and other part of the world respectively.

 

[JDoors]

Guest, that part, "... the Norwegian browser maker was pleased with the proposal and said it would like to see this happen outside of Europe as well," caught my eye as well. "Let's EXPORT our stubborness and stupidity!" OMG-STFU, right?

Can't compete? Litigate!

Now that the deal's done there's little point in discussing the nagging details, consumers will just have to live with the results (easy for me to say since I'm in the U.S. and am not, yet, subject to this compromise, plus, I have a brain, so I know which browser I want to use regardless of what's included, or not, with the OS).

 

[JudaZ]

JDoors said:
I have a brain, so I know which browser I want to use regardless of what's included, or not, with the OS).

Agree. Just look att all the bundled software you get when you buy a new computer pre-installed. Takes an hour just to remove all the stuff you dont want ...

I prefer to chose my self what browser I want, and i dont mind if Microsoft bundles other microsoft products in their own operatingsystem....at least not compared to all the other crap that some manfacturers put in a computer today.

Symantec crap, google toolbar (that you get in the computer more often then a cold on a summernight.) Yahoo Toolbar, skype (an old verison so the first thing you have to do is to upgrade the software anyway if you want to use it) .. and so on and so on....

we hardly need even more bloatware in a new computer,

 

[windmill007]

people can choose to download whatever they want. IE makes a fine starting point.

 

[Guest]

I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about what MS has been caught doing.

For one thing, IE is actually part of the Windows OS. Don't believe me? Try uninstalling it, and see what happens to Windows. This basically means you are forced to have IE as a permanent browser, like it or not, unless you are a tech expert or willing to risk wrecking your machine to do the simple act of uninstalling it. It also makes your PC more vulnerable when using it, because anyone getting past your security, can get right into the heart of your OS, thanks to Microsoft's insistence on having it built into Windows.

Secondly, unlike Apple, who build their own hardware AND software - thus giving you a choice as to your using it's product or not - IE is bundled along with Windows on any and every brand of PC and laptop that's on the market, regardless of manufacturer. That's pretty much 100% market share, automatically. Unfair against other browser companies much?

And assuming you know anything about computers, you have to actively hunt down, and install your own alternative browser, without being offered any kind of alternative by Microsoft. Which explains why even now, IE has around an 80% market share. Not because it's brilliant - it isn't - but because for none-computer-savvy people, it's the only browser they know about... and well, it's Microsoft, the same people who made Windows, so it's the only one they can trust and feel safe with. They think.

Besides, with scare stories of viruses and malware awaiting anyone who downloads anything off the net, what do you want to bet a lot of people are scared to download another browser - no matter how good it might be? (Even assuming they know how to install one - and I've spoken to people who have NO idea how to install something like Firefox!)

I think giving people the choice of browsers from XP on up, for your average "non technical" computer user, is some of the best news I've heard coming from MS in years. Between that, and the good things I've been hearing about Windows Seven, it seems like MS is actually becoming something approaching a halfway decent company, who is listening to it's users, instead of forcing shoddy OS's and browsers onto them.

Just a pity it took multiple court cases, and the unmitigated disaster that was Vista, to do it.