Microsoft’s Windows 7 Browser Plan: Mozilla wants it rejected

Following all of the controversial news regarding European versions of Windows 7 being bundled with Internet Explorer 8, it now seems that Mozilla have launched a campaign to try and convince the European Union antitrust regulators to demand more from Microsoft.

Initially it was understood that European versions of Windows 7 would not come with an Internet browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer 8), at this time Opera were slightly annoyed that the browser could be enabled by ticking a box in the control panel therefore showing that all of Internet Explorer 8 files were present on the European versions (somewhat defeating the whole purpose).

Well soon after announcing a European version of the OS Microsoft went back on their plans and decided Internet Explorer 8 would be bundled in Europe, as you can imagine this frustrated Opera even more and seems to have also now frustrated Mozilla.

In an attempt to fend of the European Union antitrust regulators Microsoft also suggested that they could provide European users with a choice of Web browsers with Windows 7, they would achieve this by creating a ballot screen with browser download links.

It now seems that Mozilla are not even happy with this proposed solution, as Microsoft will probably not present the browsers in a completely unbiased way. Also Mozilla have suggested that this should be a worldwide implementation, not only in Europe.

As I have said before personally I feel that these antitrust regulations are quite hard on Microsoft, to my knowledge Apple do not have to make any changes to their Max OS X which is bundled with Safari, nor do handset manufacturers have to cut down their product to comply with regulations.

If it’s a Microsoft OS they should in my opinion be-able to bundle any software that they feel improves the customers experience, when I buy any new software driven devices I want them to be able to be fast and simple to use without too much configuring, lets face it some people still don’t know what an Internet Browser is, let alone how to install and configure plugins etc. For more details check out ComputerWorld’s article.

Let us know your opinions below.

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