Microsoft Eu Deal

[astral]

Computerworld - Microsoft's promise to allow Windows users to choose which Internet browser they use

has been accepted by the European Commission, ending its antitrust investigation of the company's position in the browser market.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/914..._browser_choice

What a crock of sh*t.

Little has really changed.

Users have been able to choose from day one, by simply downloading a different browser

from the appropriate site.

Will MS really allow users to delete Internet Explorer, which is currently impossible?

I doubt it.

The EU has been hoodwinked

and the rest of the world will still have Internet Explorer foist upon them.

[LaoPo]

^^^^

Well, we have to wait and see what happens,.

Competition Commissioner Mrs. Neelie Kroes is an exceptional tough Lady and she or her successor will definitely follow up since......"....it becomes legally binding. If Microsoft fails to deliver, it could face a fine of up to 10% of its worldwide turnover, under E.U. antitrust law.

In Europe it was important news that customers can now have a choice of 12 different browsers.

Let's wait and see.

LaoPo

[garyh]

As per your poll I use Chrome but there are times it lets me down and I need to use IE. I don't see what all the fuss is about, currently I am using windows 7 for free any way.

[OriginalPoster]

Why is it important to be able to uninstall Internet Explorer? Even without uninstalling it, you can still use a different browser. This whole thing doesn't make sense - consumers have plenty of choice in browsers and have for years.

[astral]

Why clutter your system with bloated sw that you do not use?

[OriginalPoster]

Why clutter your system with bloated sw that you do not use?

That might be a perfectly good reason to chose Linux or Apple over Windows, but it seems like a pretty trivial issue to unleash the power of the EU anti-monopoly bureaucracy over.

That aside, the solution agreed upon seems pretty stupid. For those consumers that know sufficiently little about computers that they don't know that they can download & install other browsers for free already, giving them a choice of 15 browsers during the windows install (listed in random order, no less) will not be of any help. How would those people know which of the 15 randomly listed browsers they should chose? Probably they will make a random pick. And how does making a random choice help the consumer? It doesn't. The EU anti-capitalists have once again failed in their central mission - to protect consumers against big, bad, American businesses.

[Crushdepth]

Unfortunately there is still the odd and appalling site that only works on IE. But fortunately IE is slowly disappearing down the toilet. It has lost market share nearly every quarter since 2004.

I have this theory that M$ will try one more major reworking of IE (which has kind of been announced) then they'll give up and slap a M$ logo on one of the far superior OS rendering engines that's already out there. Version 8 and it still sucks? Time to give up.