European browser ballot to affect existing PCs
As widely expected, Microsoft and the European Union have agreed to a settlement in the row over bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. But it’s now emerged that the browser ballot screen will be sent to existing PCs.
The settlement announced today confirms that new Windows machines sold from March will contain a set-up screen listing the five major browsers (with another seven available by scrolling horizontally), with users picking as many or as few as they like to install.
What’s surprising is that the screen will also be sent out to existing Windows users via the Windows Update system. It’s not yet clear if that will be sent with every update, or only every six months when the list of browsers in the “ballot” is revised in line with current market shares. The update will only be sent to people who currently have Internet Explorer as their default and theoretically only to those in the affected European countries.
That’s going to create the somewhat bizarre system where Microsoft is effectively sending out a form of spam promoting rival browsers.
Rather bizarrely the European Commissioner overseeing the settlement, Neelie Kroes, claimed that Microsoft’s past bundling meant “neither computer manufacturers nor users could disable Microsoft’s Web browser and replace it with another browser of their choice.”
That’s clearly complete nonsense. Hopefully it was just a badly phrased comment (though it does appear in the official transcript) and not any indication of officials’ understanding of the PC market.
As part of the settlement, Microsoft has committed to allowing PC manufacturers to install rival browsers when selling Windows machines, to set them as defaults, and to ship machines without Internet Explorer if they choose. Of course, in reality, it’s unlikely most manufacturers will do anything other than sling Windows on the hard drive with whatever browser set-up Microsoft provides.
In a separate measure included with the settlement, Microsoft has also agreed to extend the range of technical information it makes available about Windows and other software so that independent developers can make more compatible applications.
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