Microsoft posted on its Internet internet site on July 24 the details of its proposal towards the European Commision (EC) created to settle its browser-bundling antitrust case in Europe.
Last Friday, European antitrust officials shared the reality that Microsoft was offering to present Windows customers a option of browser through the so-called “ballot screen” solution — something the Commission originally advocated — as part of its settlement talks with the EC. Microsoft originally was dead-set against the ballot screen choice; officials said the company would rather ship
Windows 7 with no browser included at all than to ship one with a ballot screen.
There are some interesting tidbits in the fine print of Microsoft;s propsal. For one, the “ballot screen,
Genuine Windows 7,” which Microsoft has said it will give to allow European end users a choice of browsers on their Windows PCs, isn;t for
Windows 7 users only. Microsoft is proposing that it be allowed to provide the ballot screen to European users running Windows XP, Vista and/or
Windows 7.
The ballot screen — which will include a list of browsers including IE, plus a number of choices from competing vendors — will be delivered to current and future XP and Vista end users over Windows Update, according to Microsoft;s proposal.
Microsoft is advocating that the ballot screen include 10 or fewer of “the most widely-used internet browsers that run on Windows with a usage share of equal to or more than 0.5% in the EEA (European Economic Area).” The selection of browsers should be presented “in a horizontal line and in an unbiased way” a display of icons and “basic identifying information” on the Web browsers. The top five of the browsers listed (by market share) will get additional “prominent display,” Microsoft is advocating.
(I wonder if these caveats will mean Opera, the company that brought the antitrust situation against Microsoft in Europe,
Office Professional 2007, would make onto the ballot screen? Opera officials have said they are against the inclusion of icons, claiming it would give an unfair advantage towards the easily-recognizable IE.)
XP and Vista customers will get the ballot screen three to six months after the European Commission;s final ruling in the Opera antitrust case. For XP customers, Microsoft plans to designate the ballot screen a “high priority” update when it pushes it out over Windows Update; for Vista and
Windows 7 people,
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, the ballot screen will be designated “important,” the proposal says.
Here are the specifics,
Office 2007 Pro Plus Key, from Microsoft;s ballot-screen proposal:
“Microsoft will distribute a Ballot Screen software update to end users within the EEA of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Client PC Operating Systems, by means of Windows Update as described hereafter: A software update enabling the Ballot Screen to be displayed will be made available to all current and future people of Windows XP and Windows Vista who receive updates from Windows Update.
“For Windows XP and Windows Vista people the Ballot Screen update will first be made available between 3 and 6 months after the adoption of the Commission;s decision under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003. For
Windows 7,
Office Professional Plus 2007, the Ballot Screen update will first be made available to customers by the date of the general commercial release of
Windows 7, or within two weeks of the adoption of the Commission;s decision under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003, whichever comes later. For Windows Client PC Operating Systems after
Windows 7, the Ballot Screen update will first be made available at the general commercial release date of such an operating system.”
Microsoft is proposing that customers who set World-wide-web Explorer (IE) as their default browser still will be allowed to choose other competing Internet browsers to install by way of the ballot screen.
The ballot screen, as Microsoft envisions it, will include two links: An install link for connecting to a “vendor-managed distribution server,” which will allow the installation of the Web browser and software to update that browser only; and an information link, which “will connect to a vendor-managed internet web page from which the vendor can offer consumers more information about its browser and installation options.”
As Microsoft officials noted last week, the company will drop its plans to ship the browserless
Windows 7E if and when the EC agrees to its browser-ballot concession.
Now that more particulars are available about the specifics of Microsoft;s plan, what;s your vote? Should the EC agree towards the proposal as written?
Windows 7 Microsoft European XP and Vista users t
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