Details Emerge On EU-Only "Browser Choice" Screen For Windows

Simmeh writes "Microsoft have posted screenshots and details on their upcoming 'web browser choice screen.' Requirements include being in Europe, and having Internet Explorer set as your default browser. It comes with a few surprises, as the software automatically unpins Internet Explorer from your taskbar, and offers 11 alternative browsers."

Comments

Post-ballot data

[RightSaidFred99]

Be interesting to see if this has any effect on browser usage statistics. Would be hilariously funny if IE actually gains traction. I doubt it though, I don't think IE8 is bad at all but even I use Firefox.

Re:Post-ballot data

[Wintywasthere]

Based on the recent bad press that IE has had...I really doubt it'll gain anything. To be fair though the people that see this and then haven't already made a browser choice probably haven't seen many recent press releases about browsers. I'm guessing they'll go with the (probably well presented) Microsoft option..

Re:Post-ballot data

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems to present IE completely equitably with the other browsers. They show in random order with similar sized logos and all. In the Gizmodo screen shot, Google Chrome is first, followed by Firefox, then Safari, IE, and Opera. http://gizmodo.com/5475490/microsofts-impartial-antitrust+friendly-browser-ballot-screen. Doesn't seem like a slam dunk at all that people would choose IE from this.

Re:Post-ballot data

[Patik]

Except that most people think that blue E is literally "the internet", while the other logos (besides Google's name) will be somewhat alien to them.

Re:Post-ballot data

[moronoxyd]

Those Governments are unlikely to lose votes or support when they crush you (a foreigner) for misbehaving despite you trying to use some loophole.

Why do Americans think that the EU is only crushing American companies?
They apply the rules equaly to European companies as well.
Last year a German and a French energy company where fined half a billion Euros each for violating antitrust laws: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1099

Re:Post-ballot data

[B2382F29]

Why do Americans think that the EU is only crushing American companies?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projection_(psychology)

11 browsers

[Anonymous Coward]

11 browsers? how many of them have >1%market penetration? This is going to confuse the less versed users and I bet one ballmer's chair this is intentional, divide et impera

Re:11 browsers

[guyminuslife]

We are offering a choice of 11 different web browsers with new versions of Microsoft Windows, including:

Microsoft Browsers:
Internet Explorer 6
Internet Explorer 7
Internet Explorer 8

Non-Microsoft Browsers:
Lynx
w3m
Mosaic
Safari (Macintosh only)
Netscape Navigator 4.08
Image Xplorer
Emacs
The browser from the online tutorial code for beginning KDE programming

WARNING: If you choose any of the non-Microsoft browsers in the above list, please be aware that they are THIRD PARTY applications that are UNSUPPORTED by Microsoft Corp. Microsoft makes no guarantees as to the functionality or features of any non-Microsoft browser, and disclaims any responsibility for viruses or other malware that unsupported browsers may or may not contain.

Re:11 browsers

[Shimbo]

11 browsers? how many of them have >1%market penetration? This is going to confuse the less versed users

Well they say 11 but it's 5 + 6 really. That is, they are randomly placed but in two groups - the big 5: IE, Chrome, Safari, Opera, Firefox are the only ones visible without scrolling. Most people aren't going to look at the 'below the fold" browsers.

Mirror....

[ZiakII]

The site with the picture did not load for me, I found the image on The Register with story listed here.

Re:More to come

[iammani]

Actually OEMs should be forced to offer those, not Microsoft. Too bad it wont happen, as Apple will not take it up with EU. And Linux distors are not powerful enough to take it up.

11 Browsers?

[Hasney]

I honestly didn't know there were that many constantly update, up-to-spec browsers for Windows.

Please God don't let any of them be Netscape.

Re:11 Browsers?

[Nadaka]

Please God, let one of them be a telnet terminal.

Re:More to come

[shutdown -p now]

If you mandate OEMs to install it, should they also be mandated to support it?

Re:More to come

[RightSaidFred99]

Of course they should! Linux dweebs will help them with friendly, free online advise like "You're an idiot" and "Duuh, you don't know how to peruse /proc to find out which revision of your chipset you're using, you numbskull noob!?".

Pointless

[Sir_Sri]

Lovely, so now a bunch of tech savvy people are going to be getting calls asking how to make these screens go away and never come back.

Users don't want choice, they don't want complexity, menus are complexity. Even that stupid setup menu on IE when you first install it scares the hell out of people and they just have to keep clicking 'not right now' or whatever it is EVERY time they start the application because they don't know how to make it go away. They want shit that does its thing that they don't have to think about and for whatever they're doing IE already does that. If you have enough know how to not use IE already, you don't. If you don't have the know how sticking some other choice for you there is just going to break stuff and confuse people. I feel bad for people who will accidentally choose google chrome or safari and then not have a clue how to use it, and not have a clue how to immediately revert the system to what they did have that let them do whatever they were doing.

Not a bad concept in the 'when it's installed' sense, and on purely legal basis it makes sense, but it's not the sort of thing you want to be pushing out to live OS's that people are actually using right now. Even then putting anything other than IE8 on tends to be risky, everything is designed to work in IE, less so with firefox and way less so with any other choice, that's going to hobble people who suddenly have a new browser and no idea how to make it work.

No longer true!

[MonTemplar]

Windows Update has been separated from IE in both Vista and Windows 7 - and apparently it will be backported to XP at some point in the future.

-MT.

the 11 choices are

[rarel]

Mario

Luigi

Princess Peach

Wario

Yoshi

Toad

Donkey Kong

what...?

ooooh, browsers... ok, nevermind!

11 is a crafty choice by MS

[dalhamir]

There's a decent amount of research (although, somewhat controversial) suggesting that providing too many choices may actually impede our ability to make rational choices, and would be less likely to experiment with an unfamiliar browser. Overview of some of the research can be found on the Freakonomics blog: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/is-the-paradox-of-choice-not-so-paradoxical-after-all/

The link

[ivonic]

You could just visit the browser ballot page directly.

For reference, the browsers listed are IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, Flock, FlashPeak, K-Meleon, Avant, Maxthon, Sleipnir & GreenBrowser

Re:Does IE "security" sabotage Firefox download?

[dan828]

IE on a server install is locked up tightly. You know, to let you know that you shouldn't be surfing the web on your server anyways, what with security issues and the like. Do a google search for "2008 server as a workstation" to find some helpful tutorials for turning that security off.

11 browsers?

[jc42]

My first thought was "Can I tell it to load all 11 of them?" If so, it could make the Windows box useful for real web testing.

I do most of my actual testing on my Macbook Pro, because I have 9 browsers installed there. I also have a linux box with 5 browsers installed. My wife has a Windows XP partition on her iMac that has 3 browsers. For most of these, we had to download them and install them ourselves. A working package of 11 browsers could be really handy, especially when it comes time to reformat and reinstall, which happens quite often with "lab" testing machines.

Anyone know if MS's browser installer has an "All of them" choice?

Irrelevent

[pavon]

The 5 most popular are shown when the window first opens (in random order), you have to scroll over to see the rest. Furthermore, it can't be an evil scheme by Microsoft as it wasn't their choice - the idea, the criteria for browser selection, and the ordering of the browsers were forced on them by the EU

Re:Does IE "security" sabotage Firefox download?

[cbhacking]

I'm trying to figure out how he didn't see the Enhanced Security warning screen... you know, the one that pops up the first time you start IE (and subsequently, if you don't turn off the warning) and tells you various things (including that downloading is restricted and security settings are very high). It also tells you how to turn off this feature, if you want to...

javascript randomness

[crispi]

random my ass!

only appears to be random if you have javascript working (thanks noscript!) - Otherwise IE8 appears first on the list, on the left.

Re:javascript randomness

[TheLink]

If you already have javascript disabled (partially or totally) and can actually see that page then:

a) You have already chosen a non-IE browser
b) You have javascript disabled and you know what you are doing (and have as many different browsers as you want)
c) The organization that provided you the computer system has already chosen the browser for you.
d) The organization that provided you the computer system has disabled javascript and you're not supposed to enable it, much less change the browser.
e) You're using the wrong computer - go use your own PC.
f) You're some really fringe corner case.

Re:Apple choice?

[DavidRawling]

No, because Apple is not a monopolist in that space. The fact that they force a browser on the device they sell (Safari) and didn't permit others, for a long time (has anyone seen competing browsers in the app store?) is completely different from Microsoft shipping their browser as part of the OS and the default browser, and permitting the user to install new browsers for the past 14 years.