Note: not the actual browser ballot.
The Story
The European Union is currently evaluating Microsoft’s proposed browser ballot in Windows 7 would circumvent antitrust concerns. For years, the EU has found that Microsoft’s inclusion of Internet Explorer with Windows constitutes bundling and is a violation of antitrust law.
Rather than its initial proposal of not including any browser with Windows 7, Microsoft now wants to include a form that users see upon the initial boot of Windows where they choose from a list of browsers to be installed. The main concern levied by European regulators is whether users will understand the form.
Just Get It Over With
One thing that seems incomprehensible about the bundling argument is that Microsoft does not even make the dominant browser in Europe. As of early this year, that honor goes to Firefox. So, despite IE’s coming with Windows, people are jumping ship from Microsoft’s browser.
But to play on the EU’s turf, Microsoft has to play by the EU’s rules. So let’s think about the browser ballot and whether or not the users will “get it.” And yes, they totally will.
As anyone who’s used Windows ever knows, the first time you boot into the operating system, you are presented with a some options that are far more incomprehensible than “choose your browser.” In Windows Vista, one of those options is something about using recommended security settings. What exactly this entails (User Account Controls which bug you all the time, which specific updates you get, and so forth), is unclear even to the more technically inclined.
But choosing which browser to install? That statistic which says the majority are running Firefox itself reveal that people understand what it means to install and set a default browser. Unless Microsoft somehow found a way to rewrite standard installation language, then people in Europe should be fine.
