Microsoft changes 'ballot screen' to close antitrust case
While rivals want time to study the modifications, EU officials seem eager to accept Microsoft proposal
October 7, 2009 02:19 PM ETBrowser wars
- Mozilla ends Firefox support for Mac OS Tiger
- IE more popular than you think, researcher says
- Petition urges British government to dump IE6
- Chrome snatches share from IE, Firefox
- Google joins the 'kill-IE6' campaign
- Google to pay bounties for Chrome browser bugs
- Chrome apes IE8, adds clickjacking, XSS defenses
- 10 Great Google Chrome Extensions
- Google patches 13 Chrome bugs, adds extensions to Windows
- Mozilla revs up Firefox 3.6 speed by 15%
Computerworld - Microsoft has changed its proposed browser "ballot screen" to wrap up a nine-month antitrust case in the European Union, but rivals remained noncommittal today about whether the modifications are enough.
Three months ago, Microsoft told Brussels-based antitrust officials that it would give users a chance to download rivals' browsers with a "ballot screen," just one of the moves Microsoft has made since January in an effort to ward off fines or even more drastic measures by the European Commission.
Today, the commission said Microsoft had altered some provisions of the ballot screen, and that it would take comments on those changes from consumers, software makers and computer manufacturers until Nov. 9. The comment period is required by EU law.
"We agreed to make a significant number of changes to improve our proposals, and we believe that we've been able to do that," said Brad Smith, Microsoft's chief counsel, in a telephone press conference today.
Opera Software and Google said they were studying the changes.
"Opera Software supports the concept of a ballot screen to give users easy access to better browsers," said Hakon Wium Lie, Opera's chief technology officer in an e-mail today. "The important question is how this ballot screen is implemented. We are still studying the announcement ... and will have further comments at a later stage."
Opera's December 2007 complaint sparked the antitrust action, which the EC filed last January, accusing Microsoft of illegally bundling Internet Explorer (IE) with Windows and therefore shielding it from real competition.
"The proposal to increase consumer choice in browsers has just been made public and we, like many others, will be reviewing it with interest," a Google spokesman added from Brussels today. "The test will be whether people can easily choose the browser they want to use." Google's interest comes from its Chrome browser, one of the 12 that will be offered users.
Opera, Google and Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, have been allowed to see the charges against Microsoft, study the July ballot screen proposal, and suggest changes. Mozilla criticized Microsoft's July idea, with top executives claiming that it favored IE and failed to install other browsers. Opera, meanwhile, called on Microsoft to offer the ballot screen to all customers, even though Microsoft is legally obligated to offer it only to EU Windows users.
Microsoft's revised ballot screen proposal addresses several concerns of those rivals.
According to the documentation (download PDF) released by the commission today, the "Install" link offered for the choices will not only download the selected browser -- which is what Microsoft had proposed before -- but will also install the application on the user's machine.
ballot screen
Additional Resources



White Papers & Webcasts
Death to PST Files
Download Now
Business Process Framework Demo
Learn about Configurable Business Processes and Calculated Fields. Watch Now!
A Green Architectural Strategy That Puts IT in the Black
Levergage green computing across your data center. Read more now.
Manager Experience Demo
Go beyond self-service solutions to perform more effectively. Watch Now.
Quantifying the Business Value of VMware View
Learn why you should invest in a centralized virtual desktop.
WAN Optimization as a Managed Service: More than Network Cost Savings
View this Webcast Now!
Forrester Consulting Mobility Study: Taking Control of Enterprise Mobile Device Diversity
Download Now
Asia-Pacific Enterprise Network Solutions
Learn through this Webcast how your business can achieve reliability, performance and value in hard-to-reach locations within the Asia-Pacific region.
What IT Must Do to Support Employee-Owned BlackBerry, iPhone and Android Mobile Devices
Download Now
Mainsoft Webcast w/ Forrester Research: Drive SharePoint Adoption in Lotus Notes Shops
How can you drive mainstream user adoption of Microsoft SharePoint when your users rely on Lotus Notes?
Computerworld Reports
Disaster Recovery & Cost Savings Zone
Thousands of customers world-wide have turned to virtualization solutions from Riverbed as a way to reduce costs.

