Microsoft Agrees To EU Browser Ballot Screen

An anonymous reader sends in coverage from Ars Technica of Microsoft's capitulation to the EU, after European regulators requested that Redmond bundle multiple browsers on new PCs. "Microsoft has decided that the last thing it needs in this economy is some combination of the following: fines, legal bills, and a delay of Windows 7. It has offered to adopt the European Union's preferred solution for browser competition: a browser selector screen at startup."

Comments

Wimps

[Slothrup]

Go down fighting!

Re:Wimps

[Anonymous Coward]

The correct quote is: In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.

If you're going to bastardize it, at least make it something elegant: The difference between theory and practice is often much smaller in theory than in practice.

Or even just remove the redundant part of your own version: The difference between theory and practice is that in theory, there is no difference.

For Christ sake, you sound like a retard trying to explain quantum mechanics. "Cows are black and white except when they're brown, in which case they are not black and white because they're brown, unless you put them in a box and then you don't know what color it is unless you open the box which will reveal the color that the cow is, and it will either be black and white or else brown unless it could just be black, or else dead, but only because you looked at it. Anyway, cows have fur..."

I wonder what choices they will pick?

[FictionPimp]

I would select (if I was them)
IE8
safari (the first release for windows not the most recent)
firefox 2 or maybe even a pre firefox name chanage release
elinks
and konq

Re:Changes nothing

[RightSaidFred99]

Good god. The whole thing is ridiculous in the first place, now you're going to measure the fucking icons?

Re:Stupid people will still be stupid

[Etrias]

My odds are that Microsoft will go with a "butterfly ballot" style and convince them to either install IE or Pat Buchanan.

Re:Stupid people will still be stupid

[ifchairscouldtalk]

Easy solution: let's rename Firefox. I suggest Porn.

Re:IE will still dominate

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure Microsoft is hiring engineers from Diebold to implement the ballot. No matter what you click on you will have a 90% chance of getting IE. The interesting thing is that there will only be a 90% chance of installing IE if you click on IE.

Re:Stupid people will still be stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not a bad idea; "exploring" for porn with IE is about as smart as using a condom with holes punched in it.

Re:In before the morons

[ch33zm0ng3r]

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=define%3Amerkin&btnG=Google+Search

...I'll just leave this here...

Re:Stupid people will still be stupid

[sakdoctor]

Microsoft Porn explorer: Where even looking can get you infected.
Mozilla PornFox: For furries
Google Chrome & latex: BSDM
Opera: It's not porn, it's art.
Apple Safari: Gay and transsexual.
SeaMonkey: Watersports
AOL Explorer: MILFs
Dillo: Masturbation
Netscape Porn Navigator: Necrophilia.

Re:IE will still dominate

[QuantumLeaper]

Now if I could sell my Brother on Firefox, I could stop fixing his computer every few months because all the stuff IE installs, though that is not the whole problem, he tends to click yes whenever anything wants to install. I still remember when his Office kicked him off the network for having 1400 viruses, I told him he should take it out and shoot the computer so it would be out of its misery.

Re:IE will still dominate

[thebjorn]

At the very least it will get them on a current version of IE. IE8 is actually pretty good. MS finally started improving their browser once they had some serious competition, and that's good for everyone regardless of what you use. Outdated IE users are bad for the whole internet.

I don't mean to offend, really; but speaking as someone who does "web stuff" for a living - the only people that really believe "IE8 is actually pretty good" are people who don't know very much about what's possible even in the currently-defined HTML and CSS standards, or those that have never used anything except Internet Explorer.

When I say IE8 is pretty good (or even "great") it's simply compared to previous versions of IE. I recently had a mini-nerdgasm when I fixed an IE7 bug in our dashboard application by inserting a browser check followed by a redirect to the IE8 download page ;-)

Re:Choices

[StrawberryFrog]

I'm quite happy with IE 8. I can easily use it to download firefox.

Re:Imagine these choices

[Plug]

Could we give them an "I'm Feeling Lucky" option?

Re:Changes nothing

[RightSaidFred99]

Yeah. They'll need to audit transparency of the icons, attractiveness, icon size, order, spacing between them (wouldn't want to let them offer IE first, then 10 pages lower show Firefox and other choices), the textual description of the browsers' capabilities to ensure IE doesn't sound overly attractive, etc...

It's like a bureaucrat's wet dream!

Re:Imagine these choices

[raynet]

Ah but Opera will rename their browser to Recommended Option or Select This To Continue.