The EU has accepted Microsoft's 'ballot screen' offer, which will allow Windows users to choose the web browser they want, ending the commission's antitrust investigation.
The company will offer users of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 a choice screen through which they can pick the browsers they want to install on their PC.
The screen will be offered to users in the European Union and some neighboring countries for the next five years via the Windows Update mechanism.
In addition, PC manufacturers will be allowed to ship computers with competing web browsers, as well as or instead of Internet Explorer.
The Commission informed Microsoft of its objections to the company's practice of tying Internet Explorer to its Windows operating systems on January 15 this year.
By exploiting its dominant position in the operating system market, Microsoft prevented other software browsers from competing on their merits.
However, the commission said the new choice screen will enable such competition.
Now that the commission has accepted Microsoft's proposal, it becomes legally binding.
If Microsoft fails to deliver, it could face a fine of up to 10 percent of its worldwide turnover, under EU antitrust law.
The commission will review the situation regularly to ensure that the choice screen is achieve the desired result, and may require Microsoft to make changes, it said.
Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Opera Software, which filed the complaint that started the investigation, said: "This is a victory for the future of the web. This decision is also a celebration of open standards, as these shared guidelines are the necessary ingredients for innovation on the web".
See also: Microsoft browser ballot to be approved on Dec 15?
Comments
Cyteck said: Its just Grossly simplistic to Bash Microsoft YES some of the corporations behavior over the years is easy to criticize amp to find many faults Like market dominance for example But the other side of the picture is that Microsoft windows does work amp continues to work YES OK some versions were much better than others admittedlyHowever if you never had MS windows everyone would have been forced to use some flavor of Linux or Unix which is far less user friendly for the average computer user Its fine for the technically computer savy who are prepared to learn the complexities of the OS but its not like MS windows although linux has come a very long way since the early days
Cliff said: Quite Right CytecI agree Also an operating system without a browser is like a car with no wheels Its going nowhere So ms gives you ie which enables you surf and get yourself whichever browser you wish Now lets think for a moment before you bash ms too much If it wasnt for mshelping making cheap pcs available to the masses many of us today would probably not have our own pc I personally have no problem with ms I also use Firefox and Opera which still has bugs I wish theyd sort out I also dual boot with Ubuntu So you can see have no axe to grind So just choose what you want on your pc and enjoy using it Its not a problem
michael jackson said: this is bad
Cyteck said: Ray Thats NOT quite accurate as far as I am aware If you are talking about windows product activation which is an anti-piracy technique amp anti -fraud one you have activated your copy of windows This locks your copy of windows to your specific hardware configuration Microsofts intentions is NOT to stop users from re-installing windows in the event of a crash or from backups Microsoft allow users to alter or modify or change x5 major computer components before you are asked to re-activate the product once again You are NOT charged for re-activation as you already would own a completely valid EULA anyway You only have to purchase extra licenses if you install the same copy of windows on more than one machine or on multiple machines ie to steal windows in effect which you used to be able to do before activation was introduced
Ray said: Richie think of it this way We have a corporation which has unhealthy monopolistic stranglehold upon the PC software world market Past history has sadly shown us that they will do almost anything to keep this strangleholdYour instance of comparing Microsoft with a BMW car doesnt run true BMW certainly doesnt have the level of market share in cars sold that Microsoft has in Operating Systems for PCs Have a look at the licensing conditions for MS too Change the CPU or hard disk etc in your computer and technically you have to buy a new licence from Microsoft You dont have to re-buy the BMW just because you put new tyres on it
Peter Edwards said: This news makes me very happy I have used Opera almost since its insception a far superior browser to any other that I have used It is very easy to use and has all the gadgets amp gizmos that you will ever need Internet Explorer takes a back seat with Microsoft when it comes to development a free choice of browser is essential to many users as the browser can be personalised to suit the many individual preferences and makes it that much more difficult to attack
Jake said: Alright listen up Its not about building cheap parts You could do that anyway and Mozilla is not cheap Anyone who likes media and downloading that isnt over age 64 uses Mozilla Its superior As for the antitrust it wouldnt be a problem if after you uninstalled IE the computer becomes unstable or components no longer work because of a missing web browser requiring an OS re-installNow we have to strong arm Microsoft into allowing us to un-install Media Player without the same type of problems
richard burns said: in case you havent noticed Microsoft brought this on them selves by trying to kill off any competition in the first place they purposely made IE free to kill the trade in that sector but Firefox and many others didnt die so quickly and made products much more efficient and Microsoft put IE as their default browser so to save dominance instead of making a product worthy of recognition they use cheap tactics to try and squeeze the opponents out congrats to the EU
Michael johnson said: Great work glad to see windows 7 includes the option to uninstall IE its a windows 7 miracle finally I can remove their piece of shit web browserMs need to stick to Operating systems as it seems to take them many many years to get it right
Cyteck said: The basic issue remains the same as it ever was ie Microsofts dominance of the software industry amp the web browser market in particular I suspect that another aspect of this story or should that be browser fiasco Is that Microsoft almost missed the critical importance of the web browser amp then suddenly woke up amp then created Internet Explorer Many people forget just how rough round the edges IE was in the past by current standards IE6 was fully of holes amp required endless patching IE 8 by comparison is a much more mature browser In fact IE8 has come a long way amp is now a very acceptable offering IMOThe EU ruling was a bureaucratic fiasco that only totally confused end users One minute IE was in the next IE was out the next other software had to be includedetc Shambles is the word that comes to mind
timw4mail said: You people dont realize how horrible Internet Explorer is do you
si said: they have to ship other browsers because the EU doesnt like microsofts software monopoly
Laurie said: Will all the other OS providers also be forced to provide an option of browsers on their platform eg IE on a MAC No I thought not - this is just anti-Microsoft bashingI cant see the new Google OS which will be based on Chrome being forced to provide an alternative browser
Skidz said: I was wondering the same thing RichieIts something i just dont undertand either
Richie Rich said: Im a little confused over the latest browser shipping fiasco Why should Microsoft by default incorporate a software product from the competition When BMW design their cars their design team dont hand over blueprints of their vehicles so that generic companies can make cheap alternative parts Windows is there product why should they be forced to incorporate the competition