The Story

The European Union has decided to do a trial run of Microsoft’s browser ballot system. As we previously reported, the EU said that Microsoft could not include Internet Explorer with Windows 7 as this would constitute bundling and violate antitrust regulations. Microsoft then proposed a menu upon the initial boot of Windows 7 where users would select which browser they wanted. Well, the EU had doubts that this would solve any problems, so presumably this test is to find out whether or not the system works.

The browser ballot is in lieu of Microsoft’s far cattier solution, which was to not include any browser with Windows 7.

Why So Serious?

The EU is far more worried about Microsoft than makes any real sense. Despite the fact that Internet Explorer came with every Windows machine, Firefox is the most popular browser in Europe. So while what Microsoft did was arguably bundling, the company’s actions did nothing to save market share. The only reason IE 6 is still the most popular browser in the world is because a lot of big companies which run Windows use ancient sites which only work with …

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