PDA

View Full Version : Mozilla/DoJ force Microsoft to change IE8 installation

Richard
11-Aug-2009, 20:41
Mozilla complained in May that this behavior was anti-competitive and Microsoft received a query from the US Department of Justice about the issue. "The express option is most often selected by unsophisticated users who would then lose their prior default selection of a non-Microsoft browser," a DOJ report reads. "Even though it was possible for the user to revert to the original default browser, [US states and the federal government] were concerned that the express process was confusing, especially for unsophisticated users."

Full article here (http://windowsitpro.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=102628&feed=rss&subj=0).

We should start a Boycott Firefox campaign and Microsoft should stop selling their products in the US. :razz:
willardjuice
11-Aug-2009, 22:15
Full article here (http://windowsitpro.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=102628&feed=rss&subj=0).

We should start a Boycott Firefox campaign and Microsoft should stop selling their products in the US. :razz:

I'm waiting for the EU to force Microsoft to give a ballot box on what the user wants his home page to be (that of course after he's gone through a ballot box to pick which browser he wants (http://www.dailytech.com/Microsoft+Agrees+to+Windows+7+Browser+Ballot+Exclu sive+Details+Revealed/article15786.htm) and a ballot box to pick which format he wants to save web pages in (http://www.dailytech.com/Office+2010+to+Get+Its+Own+Ballot+Box/article15904.htm)).

edit: I didn't mean to single the EU out, but I'm just tired of this whole anti-competitive nonsense from all sides. I just want to install a program as fast as possible and then configure the options afterwards when I'm ready.
BRiT
12-Aug-2009, 00:03
The first ballot needed is to select the order of entries in the next ballots...

Native, Alphabetical Product Name, Reverse Alphabetical Product Name, Release Date, Alphabetical Company Name, Reverse Alphabetical Company Name, Adoption Rate, MD5 of executable, SHA-1 of executable, Underdog status
Arwin
12-Aug-2009, 12:23
You can make fun of this, but is it really such a bad thing? Remember that IE8 also appears in the Windows Update process, so the likelyhood of consumers upgrading to it is much bigger than it used to be. It works both ways too - imagine that Apple included Safari by default in its iTunes update (not that far fetched), and then made that the default browser when you choose the express startup.
Sxotty
12-Aug-2009, 14:59
If apple did that um I imagine the EU and DOJ would do nothing ...
Arwin
12-Aug-2009, 15:09
Maybe well be so - after all, the above is a U.S. complaint, not an EU complaint. ;)
suryad
12-Aug-2009, 16:29
This is getting ridiculous. A modern day consumer of electronics and software should have the minimum technical ability to make choices on their own. Its not impossible to change the freaking default browser. If a person is downloading IE 8 on to their system its because they want to use that browser in the first place!!!
Arwin
12-Aug-2009, 16:38
This is getting ridiculous. A modern day consumer of electronics and software should have the minimum technical ability to make choices on their own. Its not impossible to change the freaking default browser. If a person is downloading IE 8 on to their system its because they want to use that browser in the first place!!!

Incorrect. I think a fair few people (at least one, i.e. me) will use Firefox as their default browser. They'll still want to update IE8 for its components, general windows security (its libraries are used by other applications) and for the odd chance there's a stupid website that doesn't work properly with Firefox. Similar with other browsers.
ShaidarHaran
12-Aug-2009, 18:17
This is getting ridiculous. A modern day consumer of electronics and software should have the minimum technical ability to make choices on their own. Its not impossible to change the freaking default browser. If a person is downloading IE 8 on to their system its because they want to use that browser in the first place!!!

IE8 is a *mandatory* update because MS places it in the "critical updates" category because of its supposed security enhancements over IE7. Unless you manually de-select it from the automatic updates list it will be installed on your system.
Sxotty
12-Aug-2009, 22:39
But it doesn't become default browser w/o asking you when you open it for the first time, at least that is how it worked here.