Win 7 users shout: Where's my bloody ballot screen?
Calm down chaps, calm down
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Several Register readers have been in touch because their early installations of Windows 7 have not come with a ballot screen offering them a choice of browsers to download.
Earlier this month Microsoft and the Commission agreed to provide a ballot screen offering users a choice of browsers in the form of a ballot screen in order to end ongoing anti-competition action against the firm for unfairly bundling products. But that agreement is currently being 'market tested'.
The deal on the ballot screen has not yet been adopted by the Competition Commission as a legally binding agreement. It is still open for industry feedback.
Assuming industry agrees the terms set out between the Competition Commission and Microsoft then the ballot screen will be sent out via Windows Update. It will be seen by Windows 7 users who have made Internet Explorer their default browser. It will also go to XP and Vista users.
Browser makers, and anyone else, have until early November to respond to the proposed agreement.
At some point after that the Commission may decide to adopt it as an Article 9 decision - effectively making the agreement a legally binding committment.
If that happens then Microsoft will have eight weeks to distribute the ballot screen to Windows 7 users in Europe who are using IE as their default browsers. The screen will also go out to Vista and XP users.
Of course, we're guessing the people who've notice the lack of a ballot screen have already got something other than IE as their default - which means you're unlikely to ever see the ballot screen even when it is released.
Anyway depending on industry reaction the deal might not even get that far. Browser maker Opera has already said it is unimpressed with the choice screen option. ®
COMMENTS
EU missed the ball...
... completely! It would be FAR more significant if Microsoft supplied relevant technical data for other systems to integrate with, say, something called Active Directory. Now that would be interesting, wouldn't it? Samba integrating with AD in a meaningful way. But what did they pursue? The browsers. Ye godz...
BTW I used FF for several years exclusively but 3.5 is slow and I've been using IE8 for months without problems. I actually LIKE it! If Mozilla ever wants to see any products on one of my clients' networks, they'd have to provide ADM/ADMX files so I could manage them with Group Policy. Come to think of it, FF would be the only one to consider 'cause when you're on Windows, there's no better client than Outlook if you happen to be a corp.
Not designed for IE
"IE is a poor browser, but most websites out there still are designed for it because its wide use."
Except they aren't. There's an existing base of ones designed for IE6, and very few designed for IE8. IE8 isn't IE6 compatible without manually checking a compatibility box, AND it's not standards-compliant. So new pages either are designed for "lowest common denominator" (so they'll work with about anything) OR for standards compliance (since this'll work with Opera, Firefox, Safari, Konqueror, basically everything *but* IE8.)
Smoke and Mirrors 2
To all the ignoramuses who don't know the difference between an application (Firefox, Opera) and something like IE which is current part of the operating system (Should not have to be).
Can I suggest you have a look in your add/remove programs and aliases and let me know where you found it!
Paris, I still want to browse your operating system.
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