http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/20...wser-ballot.ars



And now begins the argument of which browsers are going to be eligible for selection.

Does the EU also mandate what browsers must be packed in? Or does MS have to choose which, then see if their choices meet with EU approval?

And I can only guess that MS will not be required to provide any technical support for the third party software the EU forces them to bundle.

Finally... what about Apple?!

IE-Firefox-Opera-Chrome

but with a fine print that they only provide support for IE because that's their software and the rest are third party and you are on your own if they give you problems, shouldn't be too hard.

Dont feed the troll adlabs! ;-)

Well I ask about the support aspect, since I thought I recalled reading in the last couple months that the EU was also discussing regulation of software 'performance' or 'suitability to task'... something like that. Essentially that if a company delivered some software that it had to meet performance expectations.

If third party software is legislated into the MS retail boxes by the EU, who is responsible for meeting these performance mandates? The software was delivered in a MS package, so it's worth considering.

Secondly, I don't know how the EU was considering governing 'expectation' guidelines for free software, or the technical support each provides. Opera is free, but charges a fee for premium support. Firefox support, last I recall was just web based.

It just seems like the EU browser arrangement might leave MS customers facing uneven technical support for the software that came in the retail box... a retail box which has always promised uniform technical support! Or worst case, force MS customers to face third party technical support charges for software that was legislated into the retail box, supposedly for their own benefit.

The technology / Hardware AND software forum might be a better spot for this one.

Anyhow, I think they should have stuck to their guns and NOT included ANY browser.
Would have served them right, not sure how the EU could fight that to be honest.


Simply have Google/FireFox/etc. provide a FTP script/short-cut for M$ to include, maybe list this in a readme file or small print out in the software packaging. So people could download whatever freakin' browser they want the old fashion way.

Generation free and the M$ haters want their freebees though, so go download Linux and shut up.

People complain about M$'s so called monopoly, yet we're now giving Google a more important one in my opinion, yet you hear nothing from the EU in the major media on that.
BING.COM it on.

This whole stupid debacle is all about Europe holding it's nose in the air with a "We are superior, and you need to be corrected" attitude of anti US snobbery.

I fully understand the concept of "You want to sell your product here you will meet our requirements" - the USA is probably the KING of that.

But the US does that with things like safety requirements, not nitpicking little crap like this just for the sake of nitpicking.

This entire Euro-farce is groundless, stupid, petty, non-constructive, anal, and useless - except to satisfy some snotty little collective Euro attitude of "We told you so" that exists among some over there.

I wouldn't go that far .. they have their laws, but complaining about NOT including a browser?
Sounds like they want their cake and eat it too.

Basically it boils down to some, apparently extremely bored, "apparatchiks" within the EU commission, which itself is infamous for drafting braindead (albeit "well meaning") directives and regulations (like a norm for imported Bananas, regulation No. 2257/94). Unless the European nations - and particularly the voting public - get their collective act together and draft a European constitution that drastically strengthens the representative legislative body (EU parliament) and weakens the executive (commission), we will have to continue living with their over-regulative crap.


And Vulgarity, you're being difficult again.

That's probably the most polite comment I've read on this forum in a VERY long time.

Lets just get one thing straight: There are few suitable words to describe the overwhelming c*#tishness of European bureaucrats.

Hmmm, anti-US sentiment is only a minor player.

For those familiar with sausages, there's a little song that goes with all bodies of government, regardless of nationality/supra-nationality:

My commission has a first name, it's
G.I.M.M.E.,
My commission has a second name, it's
M.O.N.E.Y.....

I know the song...


Wheels