Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, Browsers
Microsoft pushes ballot screen to EC, waits for the nod
Microsoft has signed off on the Windows 7 code, and they've already begun pushing it out to manufacturers. Now if they could just get that pesky little situation sorted out with the European Commission...
First they offered to perform an Explorerectomy on the new OS, which would have made it a little annoying for the average user to install a browser on their new system. Not so much for geeks like you and me, who probably have at least one browser installer on a flash drive somewhere in the bottom of our sock drawer.
That proposal was met with a hearty Bronx cheer from Opera brass and EC regulators, so it was back to the drawing board for Microsoft. The new take - pretty much the exact ballot screen setup the EC proposed a while back.
A proposal which led Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner to say "My impression is that the Ballot Screen is the EC's preferred solution and that this will work. Microsoft understands that this solution will work and they are desperate to avoid it."
First they offered to perform an Explorerectomy on the new OS, which would have made it a little annoying for the average user to install a browser on their new system. Not so much for geeks like you and me, who probably have at least one browser installer on a flash drive somewhere in the bottom of our sock drawer.
That proposal was met with a hearty Bronx cheer from Opera brass and EC regulators, so it was back to the drawing board for Microsoft. The new take - pretty much the exact ballot screen setup the EC proposed a while back.
A proposal which led Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner to say "My impression is that the Ballot Screen is the EC's preferred solution and that this will work. Microsoft understands that this solution will work and they are desperate to avoid it."
Apparently not that desperate. In the grand scheme of things, shipping what is possibly the most hyped and most anticipated piece of Microsoft software ever released on time is a much higher priority than "playing a game with the EC," as Tetzchner put it.
MS PressPass has the full details of the new proposal in .DOC format. There's also a .PPT illustrating how the ballot screen will work. Rather, there's a .PPT containing the one image you see above. While I don't understand the point of presenting a single slide instead of a JPG or PNG, it's pretty obvious how things would work.
On first run, Internet Explorer will redirect users to the ballot screen website. Microsoft has included the top 5 browsers and sorted them based (nearly) on their ranking in browser share. There's even room for my "you have to list every possible browser, not just the big ones" scenario - additional options available with a little horizontal scrolling.
Will the EC welcome the proposed screen? Who knows. What I do know is that Microsoft wishes they were in the position to demand a speedy verdict so they can get on with getting Windows 7 deployed. But they're not, so they'll have to sit on their hands and wait on the EC now.
All that's been said so far: ""The Commission welcomes this proposal and will now investigate its practical effectiveness in terms of ensuring genuine consumer choice."
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The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Josh said 10:25AM on 7-25-2009
I still do not understand this. It is Microsoft's OS. They have every right to put whatever they want into it. If they wanted a keylogger in there, they could do that. I am sure sales would dip and their stock would fall as a result however. Microsoft can do whatever they want with their OS and if a consumer doesn't want to use IE or even Windows, that is their prerogative. They can use a different OS or go ahead and use IE to download another browser.
And wasn't it Opera who originally tried to push this through? Do they really think that this is going to get them a large group of conversions? If a user is prompted to choose between browsers, they are going to choose what is familiar to them (unless they already know about Opera which the average user does not). They'll choose IE because that is what they grew up on. Or they'll choose Firefox because that is the new bee's knees (yes, I went there). Or they'll choose Chrome or Safari because they are made by two of the most respected companies on the planet. But... where does Opera fit in there? It doesn't.
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jccalhoun said 11:27AM on 7-25-2009
The reason why MS is under restrictions as to what they can and can't do with Windows is because they have been legally declared a monopoly. Because of this the law says that they can't unfairly use that monopoly to get into other areas and kill competition.
RigfhtPaddock said 8:50PM on 7-26-2009
@Josh - Not in an authoritarian state they can't
Fyrewerx said 10:29AM on 7-25-2009
If the EC doesn't give the OK on this one, they are dumber than previously thought.
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Ashish said 10:35AM on 7-25-2009
1. The "Select Later" button should be more visible and prominent, most people don't care about browser wars.
2. There should not be a need for logos of browsers, just plain text names should do.
3. Market share should be shown with each browser - Internet Explorer 65%, FF 22%, Safari 8%, Chrome 2%, Opera < 1%
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Ziyad Saeed said 11:30AM on 7-26-2009
yes they should include market share as well.
So when after a month the marketshare number changes the browser vendors can sue MS for false reporting and demand that the ballot screen should keep uptodate with there shares. Then they can sue MS again if they use an analyst that shows IE numbers to be way higher
We do need more mess not less.
/sarcasm
Ashish said 7:24AM on 7-27-2009
If u read the MS release, it has a 6 month cyclic process of determining market share and including browsers with more than 0.5% market share.
The page can say market share as of x date.
Also, I think we need more mess here, so that the thicks as EU understand that it IS a mess.
neuropixellabs said 11:10AM on 7-25-2009
surely, it should be in alphabetical order (with firefox first ;).
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ieskorp said 12:55PM on 7-25-2009
I am not a particular Microsoft fan. However from a commercial point of view I find it ridiculous that they have to include competitors products. If it is seen as a matter of principle, then Apple should do the same with Safari and Google with its future OS. It is not a matter of market share, but whether or not you are allowed to "bundle".
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silverwave said 12:45PM on 7-25-2009
Lee Mathews FAIL
SilverWave FTW
LOL Told you so :P
Seriously though...
MS whimped out and caved to the EU *Nice*
Go EU! Go EU!
If you actually research the issue's involved here it was obvious that MS didn't have a leg to stand on.
I still hope the EU stick to their guns... this is 95% of what we wanted but it would be good to get that extra 5%.
That is top five INSTALLED by default and so no privileged position for IE.
The ballot also needs to be offered to users who bought their OS bundled with the PC regardless of what the OEM's installed.
Next up the EU forces Steve Ballmer to wear a pink Tuto to the next DEV conference :)
LOL
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Amit said 3:28PM on 7-25-2009
You are just pathetic
Mobile Phones said 12:47PM on 7-25-2009
It's about time they had some major competition if they have such a huge monopoly isn't it, maybe Google can take on ff.
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Sandeep said 12:54PM on 7-26-2009
This EU dispute makes no sense in the present day. It made sense 10 years ago when Microsoft gave incentives to PC vendors for not including Netscape.
Going with the Monopoly argument, Apple's share in MP3 player market is bigger than IE's market share. Why isn't Apple forced to let other MP3 players connect to iTunes?
Disclaimer: The last time I willingly used Windows was 1999. I love me some OpenSuse and couldn't imagine life without my iPhone.
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Amit said 3:34PM on 7-25-2009
Its funny how someone should put in an effort to improve their product to the point where it is competitive with all similar products only to be told that they now have to include every other competitors product with it as an option.
Guess MS should have just stopped development on IE at 5 or 6, atleast then there would be a reason to say that it serves em right.
As for me, I dont care what browser it is....just show me the pages that I wanna see and I'm satisfied.
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Foxglove said 6:23PM on 7-25-2009
This has gotten absolutely rediculous. It's like telling McDonalds they have to serve stuff from the mom and pop restaurant down the way because the McDonalds had an ideal restaurant location and had been in business for over 20 years while the mom and pop restaurant was located in some slum dog druggy infested alleyway and had only been open a month. It just doesn't make sense. Opera's market share in the browser war is so indisputably low that its sad they would even be included on this freakish list.
It honestly almost reminds me of when you buy a new store built PC thats preloaded with crap you're just going to uninstall anyways.
Is it really that hurtful for you to open internet explorer for 5 minutes and go and download your favorite browser?
This all just seems like a bunch of butthurt browser developers trying to market there web browsers by leeching off the fact that IE is preloaded.
It's low from a political stand point to force microsoft to do this.
And before I get flamed for being an IE fanboy.
I actually enjoy Firefox 3.5 right now. And if another browser fits my interests ill definitely change over to it.
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Geir said 7:11PM on 7-25-2009
This doesn't change much. The real problem is not which browser we get in the OS or that Microsoft unfairly showels IE onto the users, but which OS we get --try buying a new computer without a Windows OS and you'll see what I mean.....if we got the OS choice when turning on a new notebook then I suspect the monopoly would falter a lot quicker....
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kai said 7:51PM on 7-25-2009
Some models of certain OEM's already allow that. The problem with the OS choice is that an OS is a whole lot more complicated than a browser, and most OEM's don't really want to support the complexity that can be Linux.
Matt said 12:33PM on 7-26-2009
Um, that's the whole reason this is happening. If more computers came with Linux then Microsoft wouldn't have a monopoly and the EU wouldn't be telling them to make a ballot screen. The ballot screen is, indeed, a symptom of the real problem.
But some new notebooks are using a Linux OS with a 2-second startup time as a quick fix while you wait for Windows to load. I'm sure a number of people are going to like the fix more than the OS they're waiting to load...
Fyrewerx said 12:50PM on 7-26-2009
I agree ... I DEMAND that I be able to get "any" laptop I buy loaded with Apple's OS X from the factory. Come on EU, get on Apple's case immediately. End their monopoly.
/sarcasm
RigfhtPaddock said 8:59PM on 7-26-2009
Is there a provision for installing more than one browser eg IE & FF & Chrome.
Forget the logo's, forget horizontal scrolling, a list of check boxes is what's needed that allows multi-select; plus a Make Selected Default button