In response to complaints from browser makers, Microsoft has revised its antitrust-settlement with European Union regulators so that Windows users will see a browser ballot screen that randomly lists the icons of the top five browsers upon every launch. The previous method had them listed in alphabetical order, putting Apple's Safari first. Complaints from Opera, Google, and Mozilla resulted in the change, and also pushed Microsoft into moving the ballot screen from Internet Explorer into a standard webpage format, according to Bloomberg, which cites two unnamed people familiar with the case. The browser ballot screen will let European PC users download a third-party browser without having to use Internet Explorer.
The modifications should allow the EU to complete the agreement as soon as December 15. Assuming this date holds, the very long antitrust trial will soon finally come to a close.
In December 2007, Opera filed a complaint with the European Union, accusing Microsoft of violating EU antitrust law by bundling IE with Windows. The investigation continued until July 2009, when Microsoft decided it wasn't interested in more fines, legal bills, and/or a delay of Windows 7. Thus, the company offered to adopt the European Union's preferred solution for browser competition: a browser selector screen at startup.
In July 2009, it became clear that the browser ballot was for not only for EU residents using Windows 7, but for Windows Vista and Windows XP as well. Between then and now, third-party browser makers have been submitting suggestions and complaints to the EU to improve the ballot screen, ultimately delaying the whole process. On October 22, 2009, Windows 7 was released worldwide; many Europeans have thus already used the operating system without seeing the browser ballot screen, forcing them to manually go out and download a third-party browser.
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