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

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.

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

[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!?".

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.

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

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: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: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